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Culture is often referred to as a blueprint or guideline shared by a group of people that specifies how to live. It includes ideas about what is right and wrong, what to strive for, what to eat, how to speak, what is valued, as well as what kinds of emotions are called for in certain situations. Culture teaches us how to live in a society and allows us to advance because each new generation can benefit from the solutions found and passed down from previous generations.
What, and how, we eat is often determined by our culture.
Culture is learned from parents, schools, churches, media, friends and others throughout a lifetime. The kinds of traditions and values that evolve in a particular culture serve to help members function in their own society and to value their own society. We tend to believe that our own culture’s practices and expectations are the right ones. (This belief that our own culture is superior is called ethnocentrism and is a normal by-product of growing up in a culture. It becomes a roadblock, however, when it inhibits understanding of cultural practices from other societies.) Cultural relativity is an appreciation for cultural differences and the understanding that cultural practices are best understood from the standpoint of that particular culture.
Culture is an extremely important context for human development and understanding development requires being able to identify which features of development are culturally based. This understanding is somewhat new and still being explored. So much of what developmental theorists have described in the past has been culturally bound and difficult to apply to various cultural contexts. The reader should keep this in mind and realize that there is still much that is unknown when comparing development across cultures. (For example, consider Erikson’s assumption that teenagers struggle with identity assumes that all teenagers live in a society in which they have many options and must make an individual choice about their future. In many parts of the world, one’s identity is determined by family status or society’s dictates. In other words, there is no choice to make.)
Even the most biological of events can be viewed in cultural contexts that vary extremely. Consider two very different cultural responses to menstruation in young girls. In the United States, girls in public school often receive information on menstruation in around 5th grade. The extent to which they are also taught about sexual intercourse, reproduction, or sexually transmitted infections depends on the policy of the school district guided by state and local community standards and sentiments. But menstruation is addressed and girls receive information and a kit containing feminine hygiene products, brochures, and other items. For example, menstruation is interpreted as an event that can affect the mood of a young girl and temporarily render her difficult, hostile, or simply hard to be around. But, she is encouraged to have a “happy” period with this product and is also encouraged to wish her friends a happy period as well through a product-sponsored website (www.beinggirl.com/happy).
Contrast this with the concern that a lack of sanitary “towels” or feminine napkins causes many girls across Africa to miss more than a month of school each year during menstruation. Education is essential in these countries for moving ahead and the lack of sanitary towels places these girls at a tremendous educational disadvantage. The one-dollar price tag on towels is prohibitive in countries such as Kenya where most families earn about 54 cents per day. The lack of towels also results in unsanitary practices such as the use of blankets or old cloths to manage the menstrual flow. In some parts of Africa, reusable or washable sanitary towels are used, but in countries such as Kenya where there is little water, this would not be a solution. And in instances where towels were donated and given out without educating girls on how to use them, girls have folded them up and used them as tampons, a practice that can lead to serious infection (Mawathe, 2006). (Find out more about this at the Girl Child Network at http://www.girlchildnetwork.org/sani...programme.html).
Exercise
Think of other ways culture may have affected your development. How might cultural differences influence interactions between teachers and students, nurses and patients, or other relationships? | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/01%3A_Lifespan_Psychology/1.03%3A_Culture.txt |
Think about the life span and make a list of what you would consider the periods of development. How many stages are on your list? Perhaps you have three: childhood, adulthood, and old age. Or maybe four: infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Developmentalists break the life span into nine stages as follows:
• Prenatal Development
• Infancy and Toddlerhood
• Early Childhood
• Middle Childhood
• Adolescence
• Early Adulthood
• Middle Adulthood
• Late Adulthood
• Death and Dying
This list reflects unique aspects of the various stages of childhood and adulthood that will be explored in this book. So while both an 8 month old and an 8 year old are considered children, they have very different motor abilities, social relationships, and cognitive skills. Their nutritional needs are different and their primary psychological concerns are also distinctive. The same is true of an 18 year old and an 80 year old, both considered adults. We will discover the distinctions between being 28 or 48 as well. But first, here is a brief overview of the stages.
Prenatal Development
Conception occurs and development begins. All of the major structures of the body are forming and the health of the mother is of primary concern. Understanding nutrition, teratogens (or environmental factors that can lead to birth defects), and labor and delivery are primary concerns.
Infancy and Toddlerhood
Newborn photo courtesy Fenja2
The first year and a half to two years of life are ones of dramatic growth and change. A newborn, with a keen sense of hearing but very poor vision is transformed into a walking, talking toddler within a relatively short period of time. Caregivers are also transformed from someone who manages feeding and sleep schedules to a constantly moving guide and safety inspector for a mobile, energetic child.
Early Childhood
Photo Courtesy Walter de Maria
Early childhood is also referred to as the preschool years consisting of the years which follow toddlerhood and precede formal schooling. As a three to five-year-old, the child is busy learning language, is gaining a sense of self and greater independence, and is beginning to learn the workings of the physical world. This knowledge does not come quickly, however, and preschoolers may have initially have interesting conceptions of size, time, space and distance such as fearing that they may go down the drain if they sit at the front of the bathtub or by demonstrating how long something will take by holding out their two index fingers several inches apart. A toddler’s fierce determination to do something may give way to a four-year-old’s sense of guilt for doing something that brings the disapproval of others.
Middle Childhood
Photo Courtesy Pink Sip
The ages of six through eleven comprise middle childhood and much of what children experience at this age is connected to their involvement in the early grades of school. Now the world becomes one of learning and testing new academic skills and by assessing one’s abilities and accomplishments by making comparisons between self and others. Schools compare students and make these comparisons public through team sports, test scores, and other forms of recognition. Growth rates slow down and children are able to refine their motor skills at this point in life. And children begin to learn about social relationships beyond the family through interaction with friends and fellow students.
Adolescence
Photo Courtesy Overstreet
Adolescence is a period of dramatic physical change marked by an overall physical growth spurt and sexual maturation, known as puberty. It is also a time of cognitive change as the adolescent begins to think of new possibilities and to consider abstract concepts such as love, fear, and freedom. Ironically, adolescents have a sense of invincibility that puts them at greater risk of dying from accidents or contracting sexually transmitted infections that can have lifelong consequences.
Early Adulthood
Photo Courtesy Josh Gray
The twenties and thirties are often thought of as early adulthood. (Students who are in their mid 30s tend to love to hear that they are a young adult!). It is a time when we are at our physiological peak but are most at risk for involvement in violent crimes and substance abuse. It is a time of focusing on the future and putting a lot of energy into making choices that will help one earn the status of a full adult in the eyes of others. Love and work are primary concerns at this stage of life.
Middle Adulthood
The late thirties through the mid-sixties is referred to as middle adulthood. This is a period in which aging, that began earlier, becomes more noticeable and a period at which many people are at their peak of productivity in love and work. It may be a period of gaining expertise in certain fields and being able to understand problems and find solutions with greater efficiency than before. It can also be a time of becoming more realistic about possibilities in life previously considered; of recognizing the difference between what is possible and what is likely. This is also the age group hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic in Africa resulting in a substantial decrease in the number of workers in those economies (Weitz, 2007).
Late Adulthood
Photo Courtesy Overstreet
This period of the life span has increased in the last 100 years, particularly in industrialized countries. Late adulthood is sometimes subdivided into two or three categories such as the “young old” and “old old” or the “young old”, “old old”, and “oldest old”. We will follow the former categorization and make the distinction between the “young old” who are people between 65 and 79 and the “old old” or those who are 80 and older. One of the primary differences between these groups is that the young old are very similar to midlife adults; still working, still relatively healthy, and still interested in being productive and active. The “old old” remain productive and active and the majority continues to live independently, but risks of the diseases of old age such as arteriosclerosis, cancer, and cerebral vascular disease increases substantially for this age group. Issues of housing, healthcare, and extending active life expectancy are only a few of the topics of concern for this age group. A better way to appreciate the diversity of people in late adulthood is to go beyond chronological age and examine whether a person is experiencing optimal aging (like the gentleman pictured above who is in very good health for his age and continues to have an active, stimulating life), normal aging (in which the changes are similar to most of those of the same age), or impaired aging (referring to someone who has more physical challenge and disease than others of the same age).
Death and Dying
Photo Courtesy Robert Paul Young
This topic is seldom given the amount of coverage it deserves. Of course, there is a certain discomfort in thinking about death but there is also a certain confidence and acceptance that can come from studying death and dying. We will be examining the physical, psychological and social aspects of death, exploring grief or bereavement, and addressing ways in which helping professionals work in death and dying. And we will discuss cultural variations in mourning, burial, and grief. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/01%3A_Lifespan_Psychology/1.04%3A_Periods_of_Development.txt |
How do we know what we know?
An important part of learning any science is having a basic knowledge of the techniques used in gathering information. The hallmark of scientific investigation is that of following a set of procedures designed to keep questioning or skepticism alive while describing, explaining, or testing any phenomenon. Not long ago a friend said to me that he did not trust academicians or researchers because they always seem to change their story. That, however, is exactly what science is all about; it involves continuously renewing our understanding of the subjects in question and an ongoing investigation of how and why events occur. Science is a vehicle for going on a never-ending journey. In the area of development, we have seen changes in recommendations for nutrition, in explanations of psychological states as people age, and in parenting advice. So think of learning about human development as a lifelong endeavor.
Personal Knowledge
How do we know what we know? Take a moment to write down two things that you know about childhood…Okay. Now, how do you know? Chances are you know these things based on your own history (experiential reality) or based on what others have told you or cultural ideas (agreement reality) (Seccombe and Warner, 2004). There are several problems with personal inquiry. Read the following sentence aloud:
Paris in the
the spring
Are you sure that is what it said? Read it again:
Paris in the
the spring
If you read it differently the second time (adding the second “the”) you just experienced one of the problems with personal inquiry; that is, the tendency to see what we believe. Our assumptions very often guide our perceptions, consequently, when we believe something, we tend to see it even if it is not there. This problem may just be a result of cognitive ‘blinders’ or it may be part of a more conscious attempt to support our own views. Confirmation bias is the tendency to look for evidence that we are right and in so doing, we ignore contradictory evidence. Popper suggests that the distinction between that which is scientific and that which is unscientific is that science is falsifiable; scientific inquiry involves attempts to reject or refute a theory or set of assumptions (Thornton, 2005). Theory that cannot be falsified is not scientific. And much of what we do in personal inquiry involves drawing conclusions based on what we have personally experienced or validating our own experience by discussing what we think is true with others who share the same views.
Science offers a more systematic way to make comparisons guard against bias. One technique used to avoid sampling bias is to select participants for a study in a random way. This means using a technique to insure that all members have an equal chance of being selected. Simple random sampling may involve using a set of random numbers as a guide in determining who is to be selected. For example, if we have a list of 400 people and wish to randomly select a smaller group or sample to be studied, we use a list of random numbers and select the case that corresponds with that number (Case 39, 3, 217 etc.). This is preferable to asking only those individuals with whom we are familiar to participate in a study; if we conveniently chose only people we know, we know nothing about those who had no opportunity to be selected. There are many more elaborate techniques that can be used to obtain samples that represent the composition of the population we are studying. But even though a randomly selected representative sample is preferable, it is not always used because of costs and other limitations. (As a consumer of research, however, you should know how the sample was obtained and keep this in mind when interpreting results.)
Scientific Methods
One method of scientific investigation involves the following steps:
• Determining a research question
• Reviewing previous studies addressing the topic in question (known as a literature review)
• Determining a method of gathering information
• Conducting the study
• Interpreting results
• Drawing conclusions; stating limitations of the study and suggestions for future research
• Making your findings available to others (both to share information and to have your work scrutinized by others)
Your findings can then be used by others as they explore the area of interest and through this process a literature or knowledge base is established. This model of scientific investigation presents research as a linear process guided by a specific research question. And it typically involves quantifying or using statistics to understand and report what has been studied. Many academic journals publish reports on studies conducted in this manner and a good way to become more familiar with these steps is to look at journal articles which will be written in sections that follow these steps. For example, after a section entitled “Statement of the Problem”, you might find a second section entitled, “Literature Review”. Other headings will reflect the stages of research mentioned above.
Another model of research referred to as qualitative research may involve steps such as these:
• Begin with a broad area of interest
• Gain entrance into a group to be researched
• Gather field notes about the setting, the people, the structure, the activities or other areas of interest
• Ask open ended, broad “grand tour” types of questions when interviewing subjects
• Modify research questions as study continues
• Note patterns or consistencies
• Explore new areas deemed important by the people being observed
• Report findings
In this type of research, theoretical ideas are “grounded” in the experiences of the participants. The researcher is the student and the people in the setting are the teachers as they inform the researcher of their world (Glazer & Strauss, 1967). Researchers are to be aware of their own biases and assumptions, acknowledge them and bracket them in efforts to keep them from limiting accuracy in reporting. Sometimes qualitative studies are used initially to explore a topic and more quantitative studies are used to test or explain what was first described.
Types of Studies
Not all studies are designed to reach the same goal. Descriptive studies focus on describing an occurrence. Some examples of descriptive questions include:
• “How much time do parents spend with children?”
• “How many times per week do couples have intercourse?”
• “When is marital satisfaction greatest?”
Explanatory studies are efforts to answer the question “why” such as:
• “Why have rates of divorce leveled off?”
• “Why are teen pregnancy rates down?”
Evaluation research is designed to assess the effectiveness of policies or programs. For instance, a research might be designed to study the effectiveness of safety programs implemented in schools for installing car seats or fitting bicycle helmets. Do children wear their helmets? Do parents use car seats properly? If not, why not?
1.06: Life Stages
What stage of human development are you in currently and what are your main challenges/activities? What would you consider the best time of life? Why? If you were to choose an age group to work with, which one would it be and why? Are there any age groups you would not want to work with? Why not? Post your answer and respond to at least one other post.
1.08: Introduction to Life Span Development
Lifespan Development Lesson 1 Slides from Lumen Learning | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/01%3A_Lifespan_Psychology/1.05%3A_Research_Methods.txt |
• 2.1: Introduction to Developmental Theories
Theories are valuable tools for understanding human behavior; if fact they are proposed explanations for the “how” and “whys” of development. A theory guides and helps us interpret research findings as well. It provides the researcher with a blueprint or model to be used to help piece together various studies. Theories can be developed using induction in which a number of single cases are observed and after patterns or similarities are noted, the theorist develops ideas based on these examples.
• 2.2: Psychodynamic Theory
Freud has been a very influential figure in the area of development; his view of development and psychopathology dominated the field of psychiatry until the growth of behaviorism in the 1950s. Freud believed that most of our mental processes, motivations and desires are outside of our awareness. Our consciousness, that of which we are aware, represents only the tip of the iceberg that comprises our mental state.
• 2.3: Psychosocial Theory
Erik Erikson was a student of Freud’s and expanded on his theory of psychosexual development by emphasizing the importance of culture in parenting practices and motivations and adding three stages of adult development. He believed that we are aware of what motivates us throughout life and the ego has greater importance in guiding our actions than does the Id. Erikson divided the life span into eight stages. In each stage, we have a major psychosocial task to accomplish or crisis to overcome.
• 2.4: Exploring Behavior
Classical Conditioning theory helps us to understand how our responses to one situation become attached to new situations. John B. Watson believed that most of our fears and other emotional responses are classically conditioned. Operant Conditioning theory emphasizes a more conscious type of learning than that of classical conditioning. A psychologist named Thorndike authored the law of effect, which suggests that we will repeat an action if it is followed by a good effect.
• 2.5: Exploring Cognition
Jean Piaget is one of the most influential cognitive theorists in development inspired to explore children’s ability to think and reason by watching his own children’s development. He was one of the first to recognize and map out the ways in which children’s intelligence differs from that of adults. Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist who believed that a person not only has a set of abilities, but also a set of potential abilities that can be realized if given the proper guidance from others
• 2.6: Research Designs
We have just been looking at models of the research process and goals of research. This section is a comparison of research methods or techniques used to describe, explain, or evaluate. Each of these designs has strengths and weaknesses and are sometimes used in combination with other designs within a single study.
• 2.7: Lifespan Psychology
• 2.8: Developmental Theories
• 2.9: Developmental Theories
02: Developmental Theories
Learning Objectives
• Define theory.
• Describe Freud’s theory of psychosexual development.
• Identify the parts of the self in Freud’s model.
• List five defense mechanisms.
• Describe five defense mechanisms.
• Appraise the strengths and weaknesses of Freud’s theory.
• List Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development.
• Apply Erikson’s stages to examples of people in various stages of the lifespan.
• Appraise the strengths and weaknesses of Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development.
• Compare and contrast Freud and Erikson’s theories of human development.
• Describe the principles of classical conditioning.
• Identify unconditioned stimulus, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, and conditioned response in classical conditioning.
• Describe the principles of operant conditioning.
• Identify positive and negative reinforcement, and primary and secondary reinforcement.
• Contrast reinforcement and punishment.
• Contrast classical and operant conditioning and the kinds of behaviors learned in each.
• Describe social learning theory.
• Describe Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
• Define schema, assimilation, accommodation, and cognitive equilibrium.
• List Piaget’s stages of cognitive development.
• Describe Piaget’s stages of cognitive development.
• Critique Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
• Describe Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development.
• Explain what is meant by the zone of proximal development.
• Explain guided participation.
• Describe scaffolding.
• Compare Piaget and Vygotsky’s models of cognitive development.
• Describe Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model.
What is a Theory?
Students sometimes feel intimidated by theory; even the phrase, “Now we are going to look at some theories…” is met with blank stares and other indications that the audience is now lost. But theories are valuable tools for understanding human behavior; if fact they are proposed explanations for the “how” and “whys” of development. Have you ever wondered, “Why is my 3 year old so inquisitive?” or “Why are some fifth graders rejected by their classmates?” Theories can help explain these and other occurrences. Developmental theories offer explanations about how we develop, why we change over time and the kinds of influences that impact development.
A theory guides and helps us interpret research findings as well. It provides the researcher with a blueprint or model to be used to help piece together various studies. Think of theories are guidelines much like directions that come with an appliance or other object that required assembly. The instructions can help one piece together smaller parts more easily than if trial and error are used.
Theories can be developed using induction in which a number of single cases are observed and after patterns or similarities are noted, the theorist develops ideas based on these examples. Established theories are then tested through research; however, not all theories are equally suited to scientific investigation. Some theories are difficult to test but are still useful in stimulating debate or providing concepts that have practical application. Keep in mind that theories are not facts; they are guidelines for investigation and practice, and they gain credibility through research that fails to disprove them.
REFERENCES
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. New York: General Learning Press.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action; A social-cognitive theory. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bandura, A, Ross, D. &. Ross S. (1963). Imitation of film-mediated aggressive models. Journal of Abnormal and social Psychology 66:3-11.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: Norton.
Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity, youth, and crisis. New York: Norton.
O’Grady, D. & Metz, J. (1987). Resilience in children at high risk for psychological disorder. Journal of Pediatric Psychology 12(1):3-23.
Piaget, J. (1929). The child’s conception of the world. NY: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/02%3A_Developmental_Theories/2.01%3A_Introduction_to_Developmental_Theories.txt |
We begin with the often controversial figure, Sigmund Freud. Freud has been a very influential figure in the area of development; his view of development and psychopathology dominated the field of psychiatry until the growth of behaviorism in the 1950s. His assumptions that personality forms during the first few years of life and that the ways in which parents or other caregivers interact with children have a long-lasting impact on children’s emotional states have guided parents, educators, clinicians, and policy-makers for many years. We have only recently begun to recognize that early childhood experiences do not always result in certain personality traits or emotional states. There is a growing body of literature addressing resiliency in children who come from harsh backgrounds and yet develop without damaging emotional scars (O’Grady and Metz, 1987). Freud has stimulated an enormous amount of research and generated many ideas. Agreeing with Freud’s theory in its entirety is hardly necessary for appreciating the contribution he has made to the field of development.
Sigmund Freud
Background
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was a Viennese M. D. who was trained in neurology and asked to work with patients suffering from hysteria, a conditioned marked my uncontrollable emotional outbursts, fears and anxiety that had puzzled physicians for centuries. He was also asked to work with women who suffered from physical symptoms and forms of paralysis which had no organic causes. During that time, many people believed that certain individuals were genetically inferior and thus more susceptible to mental illness. Women were thought to be genetically inferior and thus prone to illnesses such as hysteria (which had previously been attributed to a detached womb which was traveling around in the body).
However, after World War I, many soldiers came home with problems similar to hysteria. This called into questions the idea of genetic inferiority as a cause of mental illness. Freud began working with hysterical patients and discovered that when they began to talk about some of their life experiences, particularly those that took place in early childhood, their symptoms disappeared. This led him to suggest the first purely psychological explanation for physical problems and mental illness. What he proposed was that unconscious motives and desires, fears and anxieties drive our actions. When upsetting memories or thoughts begin to find their way into our consciousness, we develop defenses to shield us from these painful realities. These defense mechanisms include denying a reality, repressing or pushing away painful thoughts, rationalization or finding a seemingly logical explanation for circumstances, projecting or attributing our feelings to someone else, or outwardly opposing something we inwardly desire (called reaction formation). Freud believed that many mental illnesses are a result of a person’s inability to accept reality. Freud emphasized the importance of early childhood experiences in shaping our personality and behavior. In our natural state, we are biological beings. We are driven primarily by instincts. During childhood, however, we begin to become social beings as we learn how to manage our instincts and transform them into socially acceptable behaviors. The type of parenting the child receives has a very power impact on the child’s personality development. We will explore this idea further in our discussion of psychosexual development.
Theory of the Mind
Freud believed that most of our mental processes, motivations and desires are outside of our awareness. Our consciousness, that of which we are aware, represents only the tip of the iceberg that comprises our mental state. The preconscious represents that which can easily be called into the conscious mind. During development, our motivations and desires are gradually pushed into the unconscious because raw desires are often unacceptable in society.
Theory of the Self
As adults, our personality or self consists of three main parts: the id, the ego and the superego. The ID is the part of the self with which we are born. It consists of the biologically-driven self and includes our instincts and drives. It is the part of us that wants immediate gratification. Later in life, it comes to house our deepest, often unacceptable desires such as sex and aggression. It operates under the pleasure principle which means that the criteria for determining whether something is good or bad is whether it feels good or bad. An infant is all ID.The ego is the part of the self that develops as we learn that there are limits on what is acceptable to do and that often, we must wait to have our needs satisfied. This part of the self is realistic and reasonable. It knows how to make compromises. It operates under the reality principle or the recognition that sometimes need gratification must be postponed for practical reasons. It acts as a mediator between the Id and the Superego and is viewed as the healthiest part of the self.
Defense mechanisms emerge to help a person distort reality so that the truth is less painful. Defense mechanisms include repression which means to push the painful thoughts out of consciousness (in other words, think about something else). Denial is basically not accepting the truth or lying to the self. Thoughts such as “it won’t happen to me” or “you’re not leaving” or “I don’t have a problem with alcohol” are examples. Regression refers to going back to a time when the world felt like a safer place, perhaps reverting to one’s childhood. This is less common than the first two defense mechanisms. Sublimation involves transforming unacceptable urges into more socially acceptable behaviors. For example, a teenager who experiences strong sexual urges uses exercise to redirect those urges into more socially acceptable behavior. Displacement involves taking out frustrations on to a safer target. A person who is angry at a boss may take out their frustration at others when driving home or at a spouse upon arrival. Projection is a defense mechanism in which a person attributes their unacceptable thoughts onto others. If someone is frightened, for example, he or she accuses someone else of being afraid. Finally, reaction formation is a defense mechanism in which a person outwardly opposes something they inwardly desire, but that they find unacceptable. An example of this might be homophobia or a strong hatred and fear of homosexuality. This is a partial listing of defense mechanisms suggested by Freud. If the ego is strong, the individual is realistic and accepting of reality and remains more logical, objective, and reasonable. Building ego strength is a major goal of psychoanalysis (Freudian psychotherapy). So for Freud, having a big ego is a good thing because it does not refer to being arrogant, it refers to being able to accept reality.
The superego is the part of the self that develops as we learn the rules, standards, and values of society. This part of the self takes into account the moral guidelines that are a part of our culture. It is a rule-governed part of the self that operates under a sense of guilt (guilt is a social emotion-it is a feeling that others think less of you or believe you to be wrong). If a person violates the superego, he or she feels guilty. The superego is useful but can be too strong; in this case, a person might feel overly anxious and guilty about circumstances over which they had no control. Such a person may experience high levels of stress and inhibition that keeps them from living well. The id is inborn, but the ego and superego develop during the course of our early interactions with others. These interactions occur against a backdrop of learning to resolve early biological and social challenges and play a key role in our personality development.
Psychosexual Stages
Freud’s psychosexual stages of development are presented below. At any of these stages, the child might become “stuck” or fixated if a caregiver either overly indulges or neglects the child’s needs. A fixated adult will continue to try and resolve this later in life. Examples of fixation are given after the presentation of each stage.
For about the first year of life, the infant is in the oral stage of psychosexual development. The infant meets needs primarily through oral gratification. A baby wishes to suck or chew on any object that comes close to the mouth. Babies explore the world through the mouth and find comfort and stimulation as well. Psychologically, the infant is all Id. The infant seeks immediate gratification of needs such as comfort, warmth, food, and stimulation. If the caregiver meets oral needs consistently, the child will move away from this stage and progress further. However, if the caregiver is inconsistent or neglectful, the person may stay stuck in the oral stage. As an adult, the person might not feel good unless involved in some oral activity such as eating, drinking, smoking, nail-biting, or compulsive talking. These actions bring comfort and security when the person feels insecure, afraid, or bored.
During the anal stage which coincides with toddlerhood or mobility and potty-training, the child is taught that some urges must be contained and some actions postponed. There are rules about certain functions and when and where they are to be carried out. The child is learning a sense of self-control. The ego is being developed. If the caregiver is extremely controlling about potty training (stands over the child waiting for the smallest indication that the child might need to go to the potty and immediately scoops the child up and places him on the potty chair, for example), the child may grow up fearing losing control. He may becoming fixated in this stage or “anal retentive”-fearful of letting go. Such a person might be extremely neat and clean, organized, reliable, and controlling of others. If the caregiver neglects to teach the child to control urges, he may grow up to be “anal expulsive” or an adult who is messy, irresponsible, and disorganized.
The Phallic stage occurs during the preschool years (ages 3-5) when the child has a new biological challenge to face. Freud believed that the child becomes sexually attracted to his or her opposite sexed parent. Boys experience the “Oedipal Complex” in which they become sexually attracted to their mothers but realize that Father is in the way. He is much more powerful. For awhile, the boy fears that if he pursues his mother, father may castrate him (castration anxiety). So rather than risking losing his penis, he gives up his affections for his mother and instead learns to become more like his father, imitating his actions and mannerisms and thereby learns the role of males in his society. From this experience, the boy learns a sense of masculinity. He also learns what society thinks he should do and experiences guilt if he does not comply. In this way, the superego develops. If he does not resolve this successfully, he may become a “phallic male” or a man who constantly tries to prove his masculinity (about which he is insecure) by seducing women and beating up men! A little girl experiences the “Electra Complex” in which she develops an attraction for her father but realizes that she cannot compete with mother and so gives up that affection and learns to become more like her mother. This is not without some regret, however. Freud believed that the girl feels inferior because she does not have a penis (experiences “penis envy”). But she must resign herself to the fact that she is female and will just have to learn her inferior role in society as a female. However, if she does not resolve this conflict successfully, she may have a weak sense of femininity and grow up to be a “castrating female” who tries to compete with men in the workplace or in other areas of life.
During middle childhood (6-11), the child enters the latent stage focusing his or her attention outside the family and toward friendships. The biological drives are temporarily quieted (latent) and the child can direct attention to a larger world of friends. If the child is able to make friends, he or she will gain a sense of confidence. If not, the child may continue to be a loner or shy away from others, even as an adult.
The final stage of psychosexual development is referred to as the genital stage. From adolescence throughout adulthood a person is preoccupied with sex and reproduction. The adolescent experiences rising hormone levels and the sex drive and hunger drives become very strong. Ideally, the adolescent will rely on the ego to help think logically through these urges without taking actions that might be damaging. An adolescent might learn to redirect their sexual urges into safer activity such as running, for example. Quieting the Id with the Superego can lead to feeling overly self-conscious and guilty about these urges. Hopefully, it is the ego that is strengthened during this stage and the adolescent uses reason to manage urges.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Freud’s Theory
Freud’s theory has been heavily criticized for several reasons. One is that it is very difficult to test scientifically. How can parenting in infancy be traced to personality in adulthood? Are there other variables that might better explain development? The theory is also considered to be sexist in suggesting that women who do not accept an inferior position in society are somehow psychologically flawed. Freud focuses on the darker side of human nature and suggests that much of what determines our actions is unknown to us. So why do we study Freud? As mentioned above, despite the criticisms, Freud’s assumptions about the importance of early childhood experiences in shaping our psychological selves have found their way into child development, education, and parenting practices. Freud’s theory has heuristic value in providing a framework from which elaborate and modify subsequent theories of development. Many later theories, particularly behaviorism and humanism, were challenges to Freud’s views. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/02%3A_Developmental_Theories/2.02%3A_Psychodynamic_Theory.txt |
Now, let’s turn to a less controversial psychodynamic theorist, the father of developmental psychology, Erik Erikson.
The Ego Rules
Erik Erikson (1902-1994) was a student of Freud’s and expanded on his theory of psychosexual development by emphasizing the importance of culture in parenting practices and motivations and adding three stages of adult development (Erikson, 1950; 1968). He believed that we are aware of what motivates us throughout life and the ego has greater importance in guiding our actions than does the Id. We make conscious choices in life and these choices focus on meeting certain social and cultural needs rather than purely biological ones. Humans are motivated, for instance, by the need to feel that the world is a trustworthy place, that we are capable individuals, that we can make a contribution to society, and that we have lived a meaningful life. These are all psychosocial problems. Erikson divided the life span into eight stages. In each stage, we have a major psychosocial task to accomplish or crisis to overcome. Erikson believed that our personality continues to take shape throughout our life span as we face these challenges in living. We will discuss each of these stages in length as we explore each period of the life span, but here is a brief overview:
Psychosocial Stages
1. Trust vs. mistrust (0-1): the infant must have basic needs met in a consistent way in order to feel that the world is a trustworthy place
2. Autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1-2): mobile toddlers have newfound freedom they like to exercise and by being allowed to do so, they learn some basic independence
3. Initiative vs. Guilt (3-5): preschoolers like to initiate activities and emphasize doing things “all by myself”
4. Industry vs. inferiority (6-11): school aged children focus on accomplishments and begin making comparisons between themselves and their classmates
5. Identity vs. role confusion (adolescence): teenagers are trying to gain a sense of identity as they experiment with various roles, beliefs, and ideas
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation (young adulthood): in our 20s and 30s we are making some of our first long-term commitments in intimate relationships
7. Generativity vs. stagnation (middle adulthood): the 40s through the early 60s we focus on being productive at work and home and are motivated by wanting to feel that we’ve made a contribution to society
8. Integrity vs. Despair (late adulthood): we look back on our lives and hope to like what we see-that we have lived well and have a sense of integrity because we lived according to our beliefs.
These eight stages form a foundation for discussions on emotional and social development during the life span. Keep in mind, however, that these stages or crises can occur more than once. For instance, a person may struggle with a lack of trust beyond infancy under certain circumstances. Erikson’s theory has been criticized for focusing so heavily on stages and assuming that the completion of one stage is prerequisite for the next crisis of development. His theory also focuses on the social expectations that are found in certain cultures, but not in all. For instance, the idea that adolescence is a time of searching for identity might translate well in the middle-class culture of the United States, but not as well in cultures where the transition into adulthood coincides with puberty through rites of passage and where adult roles offer fewer choices.
2.04: Exploring Behavior
BF Skinner Foundation - Pigeon Turn | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/02%3A_Developmental_Theories/2.03%3A_Psychosocial_Theory.txt |
What do we think?
Cognitive theories focus on how our mental processes or cognitions change over time. We will examine the ideas of two cognitive theorists: Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky.
Piaget: Changes in thought with maturation
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) is one of the most influential cognitive theorists in development inspired to explore children’s ability to think and reason by watching his own children’s development. He was one of the first to recognize and map out the ways in which children’s intelligence differs from that of adults. He became interested in this area when he was asked to test the IQ of children and began to notice that there was a pattern in their wrong answers! He believed that children’s intellectual skills change over time that that maturation rather than training brings about that change. Children of differing ages interpret the world differently.
Jean Piaget.
Making sense of the world
Piaget believed that we are continuously trying to maintain cognitive equilibrium or a balance or cohesiveness in what we see and what we know. Children have much more of a challenge in maintaining this balance because they are constantly being confronted with new situations, new words, new objects, etc. When faced with something new, a child may either fit it into an existing framework (schema) and match it with something known (assimilation) such as calling all animals with four legs “doggies” because he or she knows the word doggie, or expand the framework of knowledge to accommodate the new situation (accommodation) by learning a new word to more accurately name the animal. This is the underlying dynamic in our own cognition. Even as adults we continue to try and “make sense” of new situations by determining whether they fit into our old way of thinking or whether we need to modify our thoughts.
Stages of Cognitive Development
Piaget outlined four major stages of cognitive development. Let me briefly mention them here. We will discuss them in detail throughout the course.For about the first two years of life, the child experiences the world primarily through their senses and motor skills. Piaget referred to this type of intelligence as sensorimotor intelligence. During the preschool years, the child begins to master the use of symbols or words and is able to think of the world symbolically but not yet logically. This stage is the preoperational stage of development. The concrete operational stage in middle childhood is marked by an ability to use logic in understanding the physical world. In the final stage, the formal operational stage the adolescent learns to think abstractly and to use logic in both concrete and abstract ways.
Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory
Piaget has been criticized for overemphasizing the role that physical maturation plays in cognitive development and in underestimating the role that culture and interaction (or experience) plays in cognitive development. Looking across cultures reveals considerable variation in what children are able to do at various ages. Piaget may have underestimated what children are capable of given the right circumstances.
Vygotsky: Changes in thought with guidance
Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) was a Russian psychologist who wrote in the early 1900s but whose work was discovered in the United States in the 1960s but became more widely known in the 1980s. Vygotsky differed with Piaget in that he believed that a person not only has a set of abilities, but also a set of potential abilities that can be realized if given the proper guidance from others. His sociocultural theory emphasizes the importance of culture and interaction in the development of cognitive abilities. He believed that through guided participation known as scaffolding, with a teacher or capable peer, a child can learn cognitive skills within a certain range known as the zone of proximal development. Have you ever taught a child to perform a task? Maybe it was brushing their teeth or preparing food. Chances are you spoke to them and described what you were doing while you demonstrated the skill and let them work along with you all through the process. You gave them assistance when they seemed to need it, but once they knew what to do-you stood back and let them go. This is scaffolding and can be seen demonstrated throughout the world. This approach to teaching has also been adopted by educators. Rather than assessing students on what they are doing, they should be understood in terms of what they are capable of doing with the proper guidance. You can see how Vygotsky would be very popular with modern day educators. We will discuss Vygotsky in greater depth in upcoming lessons.
Putting it all together: Ecological Systems Model
Urie Brofenbrenner (1917-2005) provides a model of human development that addresses its many influences. Brofenbrenner recognized that human interaction is influenced by larger social forces and that an understanding of those forces is essential for understanding an individual. The individual is impacted by microsystems such as parents or siblings; those who have direct, significant contact with the person. The input of those is modified by the cognitive and biological state of the individual as well. And these influence the person’s actions which in turn influence systems operating on him or her. The mesosystem includes larger organizational structures such as school, the family, or religion. These institutions impact the microsystems just described. For example, the religious teachings and traditions may guide the child’s family’s actions or create a climate that makes the family feel stigmatized and this indirectly impacts the child’s view of self and others. The philosophy of the school system, daily routine, assessment methods, and other characteristics can affect the child’s self-image, growth, sense of accomplishment, and schedule thereby impacting the child, physically, cognitively, and emotionally. These mesosystems both influence and are influenced by the larger contexts of community referred to as the exosystem. A community’s values, history, and economy can impact the organizational structures it houses. And the community is influenced by macrosystems which are cultural elements such as global economic conditions, war, technological trends, values, philosophies, and a society’s responses to the global community. In sum, a child’s experiences are shaped by larger forces such as the family, schools, and religion, and culture. All of this occurs in an historical context or chronosystem. Bronfenbrenner’s model helps us combine each of the other theories described above and gives us a perspective that brings it all together. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/02%3A_Developmental_Theories/2.05%3A_Exploring_Cognition.txt |
We have just been looking at models of the research process and goals of research. The following is a comparison of research methods or techniques used to describe, explain, or evaluate. Each of these designs has strengths and weaknesses and is sometimes used in combination with other designs within a single study.
Observational studies involve watching and recording the actions of participants. This may take place in the natural setting, such as observing children at play at a park, or behind a one-way glass while children are at play in a laboratory playroom. The researcher may follow a check list and record the frequency and duration of events (perhaps how many conflicts occur among 2 year olds) or may observe and record as much as possible about an event as a participant (such as attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and recording the slogans on the walls, the structure of the meeting, the expressions commonly used, etc.). The researcher may be a participant or a non-participant. What would be the strengths of being a participant? What would be the weaknesses? Consider the strengths and weaknesses of not participating. In general, observational studies have the strength of allowing the researcher to see how people behave rather than relying on self-report. What people do and what they say they do are often very different. A major weakness of observational studies is that they do not allow the researcher to explain causal relationships. Yet, observational studies are useful and widely used when studying children. Children tend to change their behavior when they know they are being watched (known as the Hawthorne effect) and may not survey well.
Experiments are designed to test hypotheses (or specific statements about the relationship between variables) in a controlled setting in efforts to explain how certain factors or events produce outcomes. A variable is anything that changes in value. Concepts are operationalized or transformed into variables in research which means that the researcher must specify exactly what is going to be measured in the study. For example, if we are interested in studying marital satisfaction, we have to specify what marital satisfaction really means or what we are going to use as an indicator of marital satisfaction. What is something measurable that would indicate some level of marital satisfaction? Would it be the amount of time couples spend together each day? Or eye contact during a discussion about money? Or maybe a subject’s score on a marital satisfaction scale. Each of these is measurable but these may not be equally valid or accurate indicators of marital satisfaction. What do you think? These are the kinds of considerations researchers must make when working through the design.
Three conditions must be met in order to establish cause and effect. Experimental designs are useful in meeting these conditions.
The independent and dependent variables must be related. In other words, when one is altered, the other changes in response. (The independent variable is something altered or introduced by the researcher. The dependent variable is the outcome or the factor affected by the introduction of the independent variable. For example, if we are looking at the impact of exercise on stress levels, the independent variable would be exercise; the dependent variable would be stress.)
The cause must come before the effect. Experiments involve measuring subjects on the dependent variable before exposing them to the independent variable (establishing a baseline). So we would measure the subjects’ level of stress before introducing exercise and then again after the exercise to see if there has been a change in stress levels. (Observational and survey research does not always allow us to look at the timing of these events which makes understanding causality problematic with these designs.)
The cause must be isolated. The researcher must ensure that no outside, perhaps unknown variables are actually causing the effect we see. The experimental design helps make this possible. In an experiment, we would make sure that our subjects’ diets were held constant throughout the exercise program. Otherwise, diet might really be creating the change in stress level rather than exercise.
A basic experimental design involves beginning with a sample (or subset of a population) and randomly assigning subjects to one of two groups: the experimental group or the control group. The experimental group is the group that is going to be exposed to an independent variable or condition the researcher is introducing as a potential cause of an event. The control group is going to be used for comparison and is going to have the same experience as the experimental group but will not be exposed to the independent variable. After exposing the experimental group to the independent variable, the two groups are measured again to see if a change has occurred. If so, we are in a better position to suggest that the independent variable caused the change in the dependent variable. The basic experimental model looks like this:
Sample is randomly assigned to one of the groups below:
Measure DV
Introduce IV
Measure DV
Experimental Group
X
X
X
Control Group
X
X
The major advantage of the experimental design is that of helping to establish cause and effect relationships. A disadvantage of this design is the difficulty of translating much of what concerns us about human behavior into a laboratory setting. I hope this brief description of experimental design helps you appreciate both the difficulty and the rigor of conducting an experiment.
Case studies involve exploring a single case or situation in great detail. Information may be gathered with the use of observation, interviews, testing, or other methods to uncover as much as possible about a person or situation. Case studies are helpful when investigating unusual situations such as brain trauma or children reared in isolation. And they often used by clinicians who conduct case studies as part of their normal practice when gathering information about a client or patient coming in for treatment. Case studies can be used to explore areas about which little is known and can provide rich detail about situations or conditions. However, the findings from case studies cannot be generalized or applied to larger populations; this is because cases are not randomly selected and no control group is used for comparison. (Read “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” by Dr. Oliver Sacks as a good example of the case study approach.)
Surveys are familiar to most people because they are so widely used. Surveys enhance accessibility to subjects because they can be conducted in person, over the phone, through the mail, or online. A survey involves asking a standard set of questions to a group of subjects. In a highly structured survey, subjects are forced to choose from a response set such as “strongly disagree, disagree, undecided, agree, strongly agree”; or “0, 1-5, 6-10, etc.” Surveys are commonly used by sociologists, marketing researchers, political scientists, therapists, and others to gather information on many independent and dependent variables in a relatively short period of time. Surveys typically yield surface information on a wide variety of factors, but may not allow for in-depth understanding of human behavior. Of course, surveys can be designed in a number of ways. They may include forced choice questions and semi-structured questions in which the researcher allows the respondent to describe or give details about certain events. One of the most difficult aspects of designing a good survey is wording questions in an unbiased way and asking the right questions so that respondents can give a clear response rather that choosing “undecided” each time. Knowing that 30% of respondents are undecided is of little use! So a lot of time and effort should be placed on the construction of survey items. One of the benefits of having forced choice items is that each response is coded so that the results can be quickly entered and analyzed using statistical software. Analysis takes much longer when respondents give lengthy responses that must be analyzed in a different way. Surveys are useful in examining stated values, attitudes, opinions, and reporting on practices. However, they are based on self-report or what people say they do rather than on observation and this can limit accuracy.
Secondary/Content analysis involves analyzing information that has already been collected or examining documents or media to uncover attitudes, practices or preferences. There are a number of data sets available to those who wish to conduct this type of research. For example, the U. S. Census Data is available and widely used to look at trends and changes taking place in the United States (go to http://www.census.gov/ and check it out). There are a number of other agencies that collect data on family life, sexuality, and many other areas of interest in human development (go to http://www.norc.uchicago.edu/ or http://www.kff.org/ and see what you find.). The researcher conducting secondary analysis does not have to recruit subjects but does need to know the quality of the information collected in the original study.
Content analysis involves looking at media such as old texts, pictures, commercials, lyrics or other materials to explore patterns or themes in culture. An example of content analysis is the classic history of childhood by Aries (1962) called “Centuries of Childhood” or the analysis of television commercials for sexual or violent content. Passages in text or programs that air can be randomly selected for analysis as well. Again, one advantage of analyzing work such as this is that the researcher does not have to go through the time and expense of finding respondents, but the researcher cannot know how accurately the media reflects the actions and sentiments of the population.
Developmental designs are techniques used in life span research (and other areas as well). These techniques try to examine how age, cohort, gender, and social class impact development. Cross-sectional research involves beginning with a sample that represents a cross-section of the population. Respondents who vary in age, gender, ethnicity, and social class might be asked to complete a survey about television program preferences or attitudes toward the use of the Internet. The attitudes of males and females could then be compared as could attitudes based on age. In cross-sectional research, respondents are measured only once. This method is much less expensive than longitudinal research but does not allow the researcher to distinguish between the impact of age and the cohort effect. Different attitudes about the Internet, for example, might not be altered by a person’s biological age as much as their life experiences as members of a cohort.
Longitudinal research involves beginning with a group of people who may be of the same age and background, and measuring them repeatedly over a long period of time. One of the benefits of this type of research is that people can be followed through time and be compared with them when they were younger. A problem with this type of research is that it is very expensive and subjects may drop out over time. (The film 49 Up is a example of following individuals over time. You see how people change physically, emotionally, and socially through time.) What would be the drawbacks of being in a longitudinal study? What about 49 Up? Would you want to be filmed every 7 years? What would be the advantages and disadvantages? Can you imagine why some would continue and others drop out of the project?
Cross-sequential research involves combining aspects of the previous two techniques; beginning with a cross-sectional sample and measuring them through time. This is the perfect model for looking at age, gender, social class, and ethnicity. But it the drawbacks of high costs and attrition are here as well.
2.07: Lifespan Psychology
1. Contrast social classes with respect to life chances. Consider nutrition, living conditions, education, and healthcare when comparing these.
2. Identify unconditioned stimulus, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, and conditioned response in classical conditioning in an original example of a classically conditioned behavior. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/02%3A_Developmental_Theories/2.06%3A_Research_Designs.txt |
Now we will explore theories of development.
We discussed research methods in Lesson One. We are now turning our attention to theories of development. Theories are explanations about how the world works. In development, theories suggest how or why people change or remain the same over time. Theories help inform research. Theoretical concepts and assertions need to be tested through research. Theories should be modified based on research results. They are not facts. They are subject to change.
The first theories we will explore are explanations for what motivates us. They are referred to as psychodynamic theories because they suggest that psychological needs motivate our actions. These include Freud’s psychosexual theory and Erikson’s psychosocial theory.
Sigmund Freud offered the first comprehensive theory of personality: an explanation of how the management of early biological drives and motives could result in certain personality traits. He lived from 1856 to 1939 witnessing the Victorian Era in England, World War I and the start of World War II. He lived in a time in which genetics was a popular explanation for human behavior and many behaviors were believed to be instinctive. But Freud studied an ailment called hysteria that had mystified the clinical world for a long time. Hysteria was originally thought to be disorder only women suffered; it was referred to as the ‘disease of the wandering womb’ because the Greeks thought it resulted from the womb becoming dislocated in the body. When men began to suffer from hysteria-like symptoms, it was believed that only genetically inferior men were vulnerable. Freud found that genetic explanations for this disorder marked by physical writhing and uncontrollable emotion were inadequate.
Men suffering from symptoms of hysteria came from a variety of genetic backgrounds. What they all shared was the trauma of war. Freud found that when they were able to talk about this trauma or their fears of what might happen when they reached combat, their symptoms dissipated. He invented the “talking cure.” He believed that early childhood experiences were often the source of mental anguish and emphasized the importance of parenting for shaping personality. He viewed mental illness, not as a result of being evil, immoral, or diseased, but because of an inability to handle painful realities of one’s life.
Freud described a variety of defense mechanisms, or ways to distort and therefore be able to handle, painful truths. This is a partial listing and represents some of the common ways people distort reality. Few of us can handle painful experiences psychologically as soon as they happen. So don’t be worried if you can identify with some of these. That doesn’t mean you have a mental disorder! It just means that these are commonly used. To repress is to avoid thinking about something that is upsetting. It’s often recommended by others. A friend might say, “Don’t worry about it. Just stay busy.” Regression involves returning to a time in life when you felt safe; perhaps this means to revert back to your childhood psychologically. This defense mechanism is less common. Rationalization is the use of seemingly logical explanations to explain away the painful truth. For example, a woman who has been abused by her husband may think that if she only prepared a better meal, this wouldn’t have happened. Denial is lying to oneself. You simply say it isn’t so. “He won’t really leave.” Or “I’m not really in that much debt.” Sublimation involves transforming unacceptable urges (such as aggression or sexual urges) into acceptable behaviors such as exercise or competition. Displacement involves carrying out frustration onto a safer target. Have you ever been overly upset about something very simple? It may be a sign of displacing your frustration that is really about something else. Projection is the tendency to attribute your feelings onto others. So a person who is angry suggests that it is someone else who is really mad. Reaction formation involves outwardly opposing something inwardly desired, yet feared. A person who is rigidly opposed to something might really be fighting their own tendencies.
Freud’s theory of self suggests that there are three parts of the self.
The id is the part of the self that is inborn. It responds to biological urges without pause and is guided by the principle of pleasure: if it feels good, it is the thing to do. A newborn is all id. The newborn cries when hungry, defecates when the urge strikes. The ego develops through interaction with others and is guided by logic or the reality principle. It has the ability to delay gratification. It knows that urges have to be managed. It mediates between the id and superego using logic and reality to calm the other parts of the self. The superego represents society’s demands for its members. It is guided by a sense of guilt. Values, morals, and the conscience are all part of the superego.
The personality is thought to development in response to the child’s ability to learn to manage biological urges. Parenting is important here. If the parent is either overly punitive or lax, the child may not progress to the next stage. The oral stage lasts from birth until around age 2. The infant is all id. At this stage, all stimulation and comfort is focused on the mouth and is based on the reflex of sucking. Too much indulgence or too little stimulation may lead to fixation. The anal stage coincides with potty training or learning to manage biological urges. The ego is beginning to develop in this stage. Anal fixation may result in a person who is compulsively clean and organized or one who is sloppy and lacks self-control. The phallic stage occurs in early childhood and marks the development of the superego and a sense of masculinity or femininity as culture dictates. Latency occurs during middle childhood when a child’s urges quiet down and friendships become the focus. The ego and superego can be refined as the child learns how to cooperate and negotiate with others. The genital stage begins with puberty and continues through adulthood. Now the preoccupation is that of sex and reproduction.
Freud focused on biology as a prime motivator. Erikson suggested that our relationships and society’s expectations motivate much of our behavior in his theory of psychosocial development. Erikson was a student of Freud’s but emphasized the importance of the ego, or conscious thought, in determining our actions. In other words, he believed that we are not driven by unconscious urges. We know what motivates us and we consciously think about how to achieve our goals. He is considered the father of developmental psychology because his model gives us a guideline for the entire life span and suggests certain primary psychological and social concerns throughout life.
Erikson’s first four stages address childhood. Each stage is an elaboration of the previous stage. So, for example, a sense of trust in infancy can extend to a sense of autonomy in toddlerhood. Trust versus mistrust is the crisis of infancy. The infant is dependent and hopes that needs are met. If so, the infant may gain a sense that the world is a trustworthy place. Autonomy (or self-rule) versus shame and doubt is the struggle of toddlers. Once the toddler can walk and talk, he wonders where he can go and what can be said. The ability to be independent within safe limits is the goal. Initiative versus guilt guides early childhood. The child wants to plan and begin a task or project without assistance. Maybe it’s building a fort out of all the couch cushions or putting together a play and making paper tickets. (Keep in mind that the couch cushions won’t necessarily be picked up right away. After all, the goal is initiation, not completion!) Industry versus inferiority is the primary concern once a child is learning how to get along with other children and begins participating in school or other endeavors in which children come together and are compared. Industry involves being very busy and trying out one’s skills. Hopefully, the child has successes and believes that they measure up well when comparisons are made.
The last four stages address adolescence and continue through life. Adolescents struggle with identity. Teenagers struggle with the question, “Who am I?” Who am I socially, physically, sexually, morally, academically, and so on? The early adult is focused on intimacy versus isolation. Once an identity has been established, the person is in a better position to make intimate, long-term commitments. Generativity or productivity and a sense of giving back to the next generation are a concern during midlife or much of adulthood. A person looks at their life and hopes to be doing something that is worthwhile. If not, they may feel stagnated or stuck and impelled to make changes. Integrity versus despair concerns us at the end of life. We want to look back and think that we have lived according to our beliefs. We want to see agreement between who we are and what we’ve done. If not, we may experience a sense of despair because time is running out.
Exercises
Now, test yourself.
Who is the father of developmental psychology?
According to Freud, which part of the self are we born with?
At what age do we establish a basic sense of trust, per Erikson?
Name and describe one defense mechanism.
When does the ego develop?
How would you test Freudian concepts? Well, that’s a hard question. The answer is probably, “with great difficulty.”
Learning theories explain some of the ways that experience changes what we are capable of doing. Unlike psychodynamic theories, learning theories focus on behaviors that are observable.
We are going to explore three theories: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning theory.
Classical conditioning is an explanation of how we learn to feel the way we do. Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who discovered that certain cues in our environment can create automatic physiological responses in us. For example, if you think of lemons, you may start to salivate and your mouth may pucker. The reason is because you’ve associated the word lemon with your experience when tasting a lemon. Now the word can bring about the same response. Classical conditioning occurs when we learn through association. The reaction is a gut level, physiological response like heart rate, relaxation, respiration and other ways that our body changes when experiencing an emotion. Our sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions of the autonomic nervous system are engaged.
Pavlov’s understanding of classical conditioning developed out of his work when studying how saliva breaks down food. Notice that this dog has a tube attached to his mouth. This is designed to capture saliva that can be measured when the dog is eating. Pavlov noticed that the dogs produced saliva even before he introduced food. For example, they began to salivate when they heard his assistant coming down the hall. Why? Because they knew that footsteps come before food and therefore their bodies are getting ready to digest by producing salivation. Salivating to footsteps is a response to a psychological event or thought process. Pavlov called this a “psychic reflex” and began to pair other stimuli to feeding. For example, he rang a bell just before feeding. After that pairing was made several times, the dog would then begin to salivate to the bell.
Let’s review some terms by applying these to the experiment just described. Before conditioning has occurred, we see that dogs naturally produce saliva when food is introduced. The unconditioned stimulus is food and theunconditioned response is salivation. After the bell has become associated with food, the dog begins to salivate when hearing the bell. The conditioned (or learned) stimulus is now the sound of the bell. The conditioned (or learned) response is to salivate to the sound of the bell.
Let’s take this information beyond dogs and salivation.
John B. Watson built upon Pavlov’s work by applying the principles of classical conditioning to children. He was considered a parenting expert in the 1920s and wrote a column in the newspaper giving parenting advice. He rejected the idea that genetics explained our actions. Rather, he thought that learning was key in determining how children behave. Consequently, he emphasized the importance of parenting practices. He believed that children could be taught to love or hate anything associate with unconditioned stimuli. He demonstrated this in his work with Little Albert by teaching Albert to be afraid of a variety of animals and other objects after they had been associated with a loud noise, which Albert automatically feared.
Watson left academia and carried his message to the world of advertising. One of his first clients was Sunkist, a company who sold oranges. Watson created an ad in which a beautiful woman was shown holding an orange. Think about this example and identify the unconditioned stimulus, the unconditioned response, the conditioned stimulus, and the conditioned response for review.
Now let’s turn our attention to operant conditioning. This is an explanation of why we repeat voluntary actions or operants. For example, demonstrate a voluntary action right now as you’re working through this lesson. What did you do? Perhaps you raised your hand or looked up. Maybe you decided to stand or say something. All of these are operants. Now, if I wanted to encourage you to do this again, how would I go about it? Maybe asking you to do it again would be sufficient. But chances are I would need to make it rewarding in order to get you to repeat that action.
The Law of Effect states that an organism will repeat an action if it is followed by a good effect. If I were with you now, I might be able to smile when you stood up and therefore increase the likelihood that you would stand again.
Reinforcement encourages a behavior. B. F. Skinner, who brought us the principles of operant conditioning, suggested that reinforcement is a more effective means of encouraging a behavior than is criticism or punishment. By focusing on strengthening desirable behavior, we have a greater impact than if we emphasize what is undesirable. Reinforcement is anything that an organism desires and is motivated to obtain. A reinforcer is something that encourages or promotes a behavior. Some things are natural rewards. They are considered intrinsic or primary because their value is easily understood. Think of what kinds of things babies or animals such as puppies find rewarding.
Extrinsic or secondary reinforcers are things that have a value not immediately understood. Their value is indirect. They can be traded in for what is ultimately desired.
The use of positive reinforcement involves adding something to a situation in order to encourage a behavior. For example, if I give a child a cookie for cleaning a room, the addition of the cookie makes cleaning more likely in the future. Think of ways in which you positively reinforce others.
Negative reinforcement occurs when taking something unpleasant away from a situation encourages behavior. For example, I have an alarm clock that makes a very unpleasant, loud sound when it goes off in the morning. As a result, I get up and turn it off. By removing the noise, I am reinforced for getting up. How do you negatively reinforce others?
Punishment is an effort to stop a behavior. It means to follow an action with something unpleasant or painful. Punishment is often less effective than reinforcement for several reasons. It doesn’t indicate the desired behavior, it may result in suppressing rather than stopping a behavior, (in other words, the person may not do what is being punished when you’re around, but may do it often when you leave), and a focus on punishment can result in not noticing when the person does well.
Not all behaviors are learned through association or reinforcement. Many of the things we do are learned by watching others. This is addressed in social learning theory.
Social learning theory occurs when we copy, imitate, or learn a role by watching other people. Others include family members, friends, as well as role models in the media. We use modeling as a quick guide to tell us how to act particularly when we are in new situations. Perhaps you’ve started a new job or become a parent. One of the ways to learn how to behave in these situations is to witness someone else in this role and use them as a guide. Review the commentary from Albert Bandura in the video clip of the Bobo Doll experiment contained in your lesson. Notice that modeling is more than copying or imitating. It involves creating new ways to act out a role. The children demonstrate new aggressive behavior never seen in the model.
Cognitive theories of development explain how our ability to think changes over time. Our thoughts and reasoning abilities differ when we are 6 or 16 or 36 years of age. Let’s explore how and why this change occurs. We will focus on two theorists: Piaget and Vygotsky.
Jean Jacque Piagetis considered the father of cognitive psychology. He offered a theory of how our ability to make sense of the world changes as we mature.
Our desire to understand the world comes from a need for cognitive equilibrium. This is an agreement or balance between what we sense in the outside world and what we know in our minds. If we experience something that we cannot understand, we try to restore the balance by either changing our thoughts or by altering the experience to fit into what we do understand. Perhaps you meet someone who is very different from anyone you know. How do you make sense of this person? You might use them to establish a new category of people in your mind or you might think about how they are similar to someone else.
A schema or schemes are categories of knowledge. They are like mental boxes of concepts. A child has to learn many concepts. They may have a scheme for “under” and “soft” or “running” and “sour”. All of these are schema. Our efforts to understand the world around us lead us to develop new schema and to modify old ones.
One way to make sense of new experiences is to focus on how they are similar to what we already know. So the person we meet who is very different may be understood as being “sort of like my brother” or “his voice sounds a lot like yours.” Or a new food may be assimilated when we determine that it tastes like chicken! This is assimilation.
Another way to make sense of the world is to change our mind. We can make a cognitive accommodation to this new experience by adding new schema. This food is unlike anything I’ve tasted before. I now have a new category of foods that are bitter-sweet in flavor, for instance. This is accommodation. Do you accommodate or assimilate more frequently? Children accommodate more frequently as they build new schema. Adults tend to look for similarity in their experience and assimilate. They may be less inclined to think “outside the box.”
Piaget suggested different intelligences or ways of understanding that are associated with maturation.
1. Sensorimotor intelligence is based on knowledge that relies on use of the senses and motor skills. From birth until about age 2, the infant knows by tasting, smelling, touching, hearing, and moving objects around. This is a real hands on type of knowledge.
2. Preoperational intelligence involves being able to think about the world using symbols. A symbol is something that stands for something else. The use of language, whether it is in the form of words or gestures, facilitates knowing and communicating about the world. This is the hallmark of preoperational intelligence and occurs in early childhood. However, these children are preoperational or pre-logical. They still do not understand how the physical world operates. They may, for instance, fear that they will go down the drain if they sit at the front of the bathtub, even though they are too big.
3. Concrete operational intelligence is the ability to think logically about the physical world. Middle childhood is a time of understanding concepts such as size, distance, and constancy of matter, and cause and effect relationships. A child knows that a scrambled egg is still an egg and that 8 ounces of water is still 8 ounces no matter what shape of glass contains it.
4. Formal operational intelligence is the ability to think logically about concrete and abstract events. The teenager who has reached this stage is able to consider possibilities and to contemplate ideas about situations that have never been directly encountered. More abstract understanding of religious ideas or morals or ethics and abstract principles such as freedom and dignity can be considered.
Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist who focused on the process of guidance and interaction that occurs in all cultures when teaching cognitive skills. He believed that cognitive abilities were not entirely dependent on physical maturation. Cognitive abilities are acquired through guidance and interaction with others. This interaction involves scaffolding in which the child or apprentice in learning is given hands-on assistance along with explanation as they learn to perform a task. The key is to work with a child within their zone of proximal development. The task needs to be stimulating enough to engage their learning but not too difficult to achieve.
One of the most comprehensive theories of human development comes to us from Urie Bronfenbrenner. Bronfenbrenner studies Freud, Erikson, Piaget, and learning theorists and believed that all of those theories could be enhanced by adding the dimension of context. What is being taught and how society interprets situations depends on who is involved in the life of a child and on when and where a child lives.
Bronfenbrenner’s model explains the direct and indirect influences on an individual’s development. Microsystems impact a child directly. These are the people with whom the child interacts such as parents, peers, and teachers. The relationship between individuals and those around them need to be considered. For example, to appreciate what is going on with a student in math, the relationship between the student and teacher should be known. Mesosystems are interactions between those surrounding the individual. The relationship between parents and schools, for example will indirectly affect the child. Larger institutions such as the mass media or the healthcare system are referred to as the exosystem. These have an impact on families and peers and schools who operate under policies and regulations found in these institutions. We find cultural values and beliefs at the level of macrosystems. These larger ideals and expectations inform institutions that will ultimately impact the individual.
All of this happens in an historic context referred to as the chronosystem. Cultural values change over time as do policies of educational institutions or governments in certain political climates. Development occurs at a point in time.
So in order to understand a student in math, we can’t simply look at that individual and what challenges they face directly with the subject. We have to look at the interactions that occur between teacher and child. Perhaps the teacher needs to make modifications as well. The teacher may be responding to regulations made by the school such as new expectations for students in math or constraints on time that interfere with the teacher’s ability to instruct. These new demands may be a response to national efforts to promote math and science deemed important by a political leaders in response to relations with other countries at a particular time in history.
In sum, this model challenges us to go beyond the individual if we want to understand human development and promote improvements.
2.09: Developmental Theories
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• 3.1: Introduction to Heredity, Prenatal Development, and Birth
In this lesson, we will look at some of the ways in which heredity helps to shape the way we are, what happens genetically during conception, and take a brief look some genetic abnormalities. For decades, scholars have carried on the “nature/nurture” debate. Those on the “nature” side would argue that heredity plays the most important role in bringing about that feature. Those on the “nurture” side would argue that one’s environment is most significant in shaping the way we are.
• 3.2: Prenatal Development
The germinal period, the organism begins cell division and growth after conception. The embryonic period begins once the organism is implanted in the uterine wall. During this period, cells continue to differentiate and at 22 days after conception the neural tube forms which will become the brain and spinal column. From the ninth week until birth, the organism is referred to as a fetus. During this stage, the major structures are continuing to develop.
• 3.3: Environmental Risks
Good prenatal care is essential. The developing child is most at risk for some of the most severe problems during the first three months of development. Unfortunately, this is a time at which most mothers are unaware that they are pregnant. One of the most commonly used teratogens is alcohol. Some environmental pollutants of major concern include lead poisoning, which is connected with low birth weight and slowed neurological development. One of the most potentially devastating teratogens is HIV
• 3.4: Pregnancy
There are a number of common side effects of pregnancy. Not everyone experiences all of these nor to the same degree. And although they are considered “minor” this is not to say that these problems are potentially very uncomfortable. Serious complications of pregnancy can pose health risks to mother and child and often require hospitalization. Difficulty during delivery may lead to anoxia which can result in brain damage or in severe cases, death.
• 3.5: Childbirth
Prepared childbirth refers to being not only physically in good condition to help provide a healthy environment for the baby to develop, but also helping a couple to prepare to accept their new roles as parents and to get information and training that will assist them for delivery and life with the baby as much as possible. The more a couple can learn about childbirth and the newborn, the better prepared they will be for the adjustment they must make to a new life.
• 3.6: Maternal Mortality
Read this BBC article about why so many women worldwide still die in childbirth.
• 3.7: Prenatal Development
• 3.8: Prenatal Development
• 3.9: Introduction and Prenatal Development
• 3.10: Introduction to Lifespan, Theories and Research, Beginnings
• 3.11: "Life's Greatest Miracle"
• 3.12: Unit 1 Exam
Thumbnail: Movements of a human embryo of a gestational age of almost exactly 9 weeks.Häggström, Mikael (2014). "Medical gallery of Mikael Häggström 2014". WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2).(Public Domain).
03: Prenatal Development
When the abnormality is on pair #23, the result is a sex-linked chromosomal abnormality. A person might have XXY, XYY, XXX, XO, or 45 or 47 chromosomes as a result. Two of the more common sex-linked chromosomal disorders are Turner’s syndrome and Klinefelter’s syndrome. Turner’s syndrome occurs in 1 of every 2,500 live female births (Carroll, 2007) when an ovum which lacks a chromosome is fertilized by a sperm with an X chromosome. The resulting zygote has an XO composition. Fertilization by a Y sperm is not viable. Turner syndrome affects cognitive functioning and sexual maturation. The external genitalia appear normal, but breasts and ovaries do not develop fully and the woman does not menstruate. Turner’s syndrome also results in short stature and other physical characteristics. Learn more at www.turnersyndrome.org/. Klinefelter’s syndrome (XXY) occurs in 1 out of 700 live male births and results when an ovum containing an extra X chromosome is fertilized by a Y sperm. The Y chromosome stimulates the growth of male genitalia, but the additional X chromosome inhibits this development. An individual with Klinefelter’s syndrome has some breast development, infertility (this is the most common cause of infertility in males), and has low levels of testosterone.
Most of the known genetic disorders are dominant gene-linked; however, the vast majority of dominant gene linked disorders are not serious disorders, or if they are, they may still not be debilitating. For example, the majority of those with Tourette’s Syndrome suffer only minor tics from time to time and can easily control or cover up their symptoms. Huntington’s Disease is a dominant gene linked disorder that affects the nervous system and is fatal but does not appear until midlife. Recessive gene disorders, such as cystic fibrosis and sickel-cell anemia, are less common but may actually claim more lives because they are less likely to be detected as people are unaware that they are carriers of the disease. If the genes inherited from each parent are the same, the child is homozygous for a particular trait and will inherit the trait. If, however, the child inherits a gene from one parent but not the other, the child is heterozygous, and interaction between the genes will in part determine whether or not that trait is expressed (Berk, 2004).
REFERENCES
1. Berger, K. S. (2005). The developing person through the life span (6th ed.). New York: Worth.
2. Berk, L. (2004). Development through the life span (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
3. Bortolus, R., Parazzini, F., Chatenoud, L., Benzi, G., Bianchi, M. M., & Marini, A. (1999). The epidemiology of multiple births. Human Reproduction Update, 5, 179-187.
4. Brazelton, T. B., & Nugent, J. K. (1995). Neonatal behavioral assessment scale. London: Mac Keith Press.
5. Carrell, D. T., Wilcox, A. L., Lowry, L., Peterson, C. M., Jones, K. P., & Erikson, L. (2003). Elevated sperm chromosome aneuploidy and apoptosis in patients with unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 101(6), 1229-1235.
6. Carroll, J. L. (2007). Sexuality now: Embracing diversity (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson.
7. Dietrich, K. N. (1999). Environmental toxicants and child development. In Tager-Flusberg (Ed.), Neurodevelopmental disorders (pp. 469-490). Boston: MIT Press.
8. FASD, NCBDDD, CDC. (2006, July/August). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved May 03, 2011, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/fas/fasask.htm
9. Galinsky, E. (1987). The six stages of parenthood. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub.
10. Gottlieb, G. (1998). Normally occurring environmental and behavioral influences on gene activity: From central dogma to probabilistic epigenesis. Psychological Review, 105, 792-802.
11. Gottlieb, G. (2000). Environmental and behavioral influences on gene activity. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 93-97.
12. Gottlieb, G. (2002). Individual development and evolution: The genesis of novel behavior. New York: Oxford University Press.
13. Gould, J. L. (1997). Biological science. New York: Norton.
14. Lippa, R. A. (2002). Gender, nature, and nurture. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum.
15. MacDorman, M., Menacker, F., & Declercq, E. (2010, August 30). Trends and Characteristics of Home and Other out of Hospital Births in the United States, 1990-2006 (United States, Center for Disease Control). Retrieved December 22, 2010, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nv...;nvsr58_11.PDF
16. Mackon, N., & Fauser, B. (2000). Aspects of ovarian follicle development throughout life. Hormone Research, 52, 161-170.
17. McKusick, V. A. (1998). Mendelian inheritance in man: A catalog of human genes and genetic disorders. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
18. Moore, K. L., & Persaud, T. V. (1998). Before we are born (5th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Saunders.
19. Mutti, D. O., Zadnik, K., & Adams, A. J. (n.d.). Myopia. The nature versus nurture debate goes on. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. Retrieved May 03, 2011, from http://www.iovs.org/cgi/reprint/37/6/952
20. Newell, M. (2005). Current issues in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 infection. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 100(1), 1-5. doi: 10.1016/j.trstmh.2005.05.012
21. Rome, E. (1998). Anatomy and physiology of sexuality and reproduction. In The New Our Bodies, Ourselves (pp. 241-258). Carmichael, CA: Touchstone Books.
22. UNAIDS, World Health Organization. (2005). Adults and Children Estimated to Be Living with HIV as of the End of 2005. Retrieved August 13, 2006, from http://www.unaids.org?NetTools/Misc/...x?LANG=en&href http://GVA-DOC-OWL/WEBcontent/Docume...lide004_en.ppt
23. United States, Center for Disease Control. (n.d.). The Health Consequences of Smoking: 2004 Report of the Surgeon General. Retrieved August 14, 2004, from http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sqr/sqr_2004
24. United States, Center for Disease Control. (2006, July/August). Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines. Retrieved August 14, 2006, from http://www.cdc.gov/std/treatment/2006/rr5511.pdf
25. United States, Center for Disease Control, Health and Human Services. (2010, October 5). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved May 03, 2011, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/faststats/birthwt.htm
26. United States, Center for Disease Control, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. (2004, October 29). Fast Facts about Medication Use during Pregnancy and While Breastfeeding. Retrieved August 10, 2006, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/fas/fasask.htm
27. World Health Organization. (2010, September 15). Maternal Deaths Worldwide Drop by a Third, WHO. Retrieved December 22, 2010, from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/.../en/index.html | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/03%3A_Prenatal_Development/3.01%3A_Introduction_to_Heredity_Prenatal_Development_and_Birth.txt |
Now we turn our attention to prenatal development which is divided into three periods: the germinal period, the embryonic period, and the fetal period. Here is an overview of some of the changes that take place during each period.
The Germinal Period
The germinal period (about 14 days in length) lasts from conception to implantation of the zygote (fertilized egg) in the lining of the uterus. During this time, the organism begins cell division and growth. After the fourth doubling, differentiation of the cells begins to occur as well. It’s estimated that about 60 percent of natural conceptions fail to implant in the uterus. The rate is higher for in vitro conceptions.
Sperm and Ovum at Conception
The Embryonic Period
This period begins once the organism is implanted in the uterine wall. It lasts from the third through the eighth week after conception. During this period, cells continue to differentiate and at 22 days after conception the neural tube forms which will become the brain and spinal column. Growth during prenatal development occurs in two major directions: from head to tail (cephalocaudal development) and from the midline outward (proximodistal development). This means that those structures nearest the head develop before those nearest the feet and those structures nearest the torso develop before those away from the center of the body (such as hands and fingers). The head develops in the fourth week and the precursor to the heart begins to pulse.
Photo by Lunar Caustic
In the early stages of the embryonic period, gills and a tail are apparent. But by the end of this stage, they disappear and the organism takes on a more human appearance. About 20 percent of organisms fail during the embryonic period, usually due to gross chromosomal abnormalities. As in the case of the germinal period, often the mother does not yet know that she is pregnant. It is during this stage that the major structures of the body are taking form making the embryonic period the time when the organism is most vulnerable to the greatest amount of damage if exposed to harmful substances. (We will look at this in the section on teratology below.) Potential mothers are not often aware of the risks they introduce to the developing child during this time. The embryo is approximately 1 inch in length and weighs about 4 grams at the end of this period. The embryo can move and respond to touch at this time.
The Fetal Period
From the ninth week until birth, the organism is referred to as a fetus. During this stage, the major structures are continuing to develop. By the 12th week, the fetus has all its body parts including external genitalia. In the following weeks, the fetus will develop hair, nails, teeth and the excretory and digestive systems will continue to develop. At the end of the 12th week, the fetus is about 3 inches long and weighs about 28 grams.
During the 4-6th months, the eyes become more sensitive to light and hearing de, hearing develops. Respiratory system continues to develop. Reflexes such as sucking, swallowing and hiccupping develop during the 5th month. Cycles of sleep and wakefulness are present at that time as well. The first chance of survival outside the womb, known as the age of viability is reached at about 22 and 26 weeks (Moore & Persaud, 1998). Many practitioners hesitate to resuscitation before 24 weeks. The majority of the neurons in the brain have developed by 24 weeks although they are still rudimentary and the glial or nurse cells that support neurons continue to grow. At 24 weeks the fetus can feel pain (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 1997).
Between the 7th and 9th months the fetus is primarily preparing for birth. It is exercising its muscles, its lungs begin to expand and contract. It is developing fat layers under the skin. The fetus gains about 5 pounds and 7 inches during this last trimester of pregnancy which includes a layer of fat gained during the 8th month. This layer of fat serves as insulation and helps the baby regulate body temperature after birth. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/03%3A_Prenatal_Development/3.02%3A_Prenatal_Development.txt |
Teratology
Good prenatal care is essential. The developing child is most at risk for some of the most severe problems during the first three months of development. Unfortunately, this is a time at which most mothers are unaware that they are pregnant. Today, we know many of the factors that can jeopardize the health of the developing child. The study of factors that contribute to birth defects is called teratology. Teratogens are factors that can contribute to birth defects which include some maternal diseases, pollutants, drugs and alcohol.
Factors influencing prenatal risks: There are several considerations in determining the type and amount of damage that might result from exposure to a particular teratogen (Berger, 2004). These include:
• The timing of the exposure: Structures in the body are vulnerable to the most severe damage when they are forming. If a substance is introduced during a particular structure’s critical period (time of development), the damage to that structure may be greater. For example, the ears and arms reach their critical periods at about 6 weeks after conception. If a mother exposes the embryo to certain substances during this period, the arms and ears may be malformed.
• The amount of exposure: Some substances are not harmful unless the amounts reach a certain level. The critical level depends in part on the size and metabolism of the mother.
• Genetics: Genetic make-up also plays a role on the impact a particular teratogen might have on the child. This is suggested by fraternal twin studies who are exposed to the same prenatal environment, yet do not experience the same teratogenic effects. The genetic make-up of the mother can also have an effect; some mothers may be more resistant to teratogenic effects than others.
• Being male or female: Males are more likely to experience damage due to teratogens than are females. It is believed that the Y chromosome, which contains fewer genes than the X, may have an impact.
Critical Periods of Prenatal Development
A Look at Some Teratogens
One of the most commonly used teratogens is alcohol and because half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, it is recommended that women of child-bearing age take great caution against drinking alcohol when not using birth control or when pregnant (Surgeon General’s Advisory on Alcohol Use During Pregnancy, 2005). Alcohol consumption, particularly during the second month of prenatal development but at any point during pregnancy may lead to neurocognitive and behavioral difficulties that can last a lifetime. Binge drinking (5 or more on a single occasion) or 7 or more drinks during a single week place a child at risk. In extreme cases, alcohol consumption can lead to fetal death but more frequently it can result in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) (this terminology is now used when looking at the effects of exposure and replaces the term fetal alcohol syndrome. It is preferred because it recognizes that symptoms occur on a spectrum and that all individuals do not have the same characteristics.) Children with FASD share certain physical features such as flattened noses, small eye holes, and small heads, intellectual developmental delay, and behavioral problems. Those with FASD are more at risk for lifelong problems such as criminal behavior, psychiatric problems, and unemployment (CDC, 2006). The terms alcohol-related neurological disorder (ARND) and alcohol-related birth defects (ARBD) have replaced the term Fetal Alcohol Effects to refer to those with less extreme symptoms of FASD. ARBD include kidney, bone and heart problems.
Tobacco is the second most widely used teratogen and the number of adolescent females who smoke is increasing. In fact, among adolescents, females are just as likely to smoke as are males. Tobacco use during pregnancy has been associated with low birth weight, placenta previa, preterm delivery, fetal growth restriction and sudden infant death syndrome (Center for Disease Control, 2004).
Illicit drugs as well as prescribed medications can have serious teratogenic effects. It is difficult to completely determine the effects of a particular illicit drug on a developing child because most mothers, who use, use more than one substance. However, several problems seem clear. The use of cocaine is connected with low birth weight, stillbirths and spontaneous abortion. Heavy marijuana use is associated with brain damage and mothers addicted to heroin often pass that addiction to their child. And many medications do not include adequate information on risks posed if taken during pregnancy (Center for Disease Control, 2004).
Pollutants
Some environmental pollutants of major concern include lead poisoning, which is connected with low birth weight and slowed neurological development. Children who live in older housing in which lead based paints have been used have been known to eat peeling paint chips thus being exposed to lead. The chemicals in certain herbicides are also potentially damaging. Radiation is another environmental hazard. If a mother is exposed to radiation, particularly during the first 3 months of pregnancy, the child may suffer some congenital deformities. There is also an increased risk of miscarriage and stillbirth. Mercury leads to physical deformities and mental retardation (Dietrich, 1999).
HIV
One of the most potentially devastating teratogens is HIV. In the United States, the fastest growing group of people with AIDS is women; globally half of all people infected with HIV are women (UNAIDS, 2005). It is estimated that between 630,000 to 820,000 children were newly infected with HIV worldwide in 2005. Most of this infection is from mother-to-child through the placenta or birth canal (Newell, 2005). There are some measures that can be taken to lower the chance the child will contract the disease (such as the use of antiretroviral drugs from 14 weeks after conception until birth, avoiding breastfeeding, and delivering the child by c-section), many women do not know they are HIV positive during pregnancy. Still others cannot afford the costly drugs used for treating AIDS. The transmission rate of HIV from mother to child has been reduced in the United States to between 100-200 infants annually. Go to http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/perina.../perinatal.htm to learn more.
Maternal Diseases
German measles (or rubella) have been associated with a number of maladies. If the mother contracts the disease during the first three months of pregnancy, damage can occur in the eyes, ears, heart or brain of the unborn child. Deafness is almost certain if the mother has German measles before the 11th week of prenatal development and can also cause brain damage. Gonorrhea, syphilis, and Chlamydia are sexually transmitted infections that can be passed to the fetus by an infected mother; mothers should be tested as early as possible to minimize the risk of spreading these infections (Center for Disease Control, 2006). | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/03%3A_Prenatal_Development/3.03%3A_Environmental_Risks.txt |
Complications of Pregnancy
Minor complications: There are a number of common side effects of pregnancy. Not everyone experiences all of these nor to the same degree. And although they are considered “minor” this is not to say that these problems are potentially very uncomfortable. These side effects include nausea (particularly during the first 3-4 months of pregnancy as a result of higher levels of estrogen in the system), heartburn, gas, hemorrhoids, backache, leg cramps, insomnia, constipation, shortness of breath or varicose veins (as a result of carrying a heavy load on the abdomen). What is the cure? Delivery!
Major Complications: The following are some serious complications of pregnancy which can pose health risks to mother and child and that often require hospitalization. Ectopic pregnancy occurs when the zygote becomes attached to the fallopian tube before reaching the uterus. About 1 in 50 pregnancies in the United States are tubal pregnancies and this number has been increasing because of the higher rates of pelvic inflammatory disease and Chlamydia (Carroll, 2007). Abdominal pain, vaginal bleeding, nausea and fainting are symptoms of ectopic pregnancy. Toxemia or blood poisoning due to kidney malfunction is experienced by 6 to 7 percent of women during their last months of pregnancy. If untreated toxemia can lead to preeclampsia or swelling and hypertension or progress to eclampsia which is can involve coma or death.
Maternal Mortality: Approximately 1000 women die in childbirth around the world each day (World Health Organization, 2010). Rates are highest in Subsaharan Africa and South Asia although there has been a substantial decrease in these rates. The campaign to make childbirth safe for everyone has led to the development of clinics accessible to those living in more isolated areas and training more midwives to assist in childbirth.
Example:
Listen to this NPR story about a midwife’s experience in a remote region of Afghanistan:
In Afghanistan, Midwives ‘Are Like Guardian Angels For Infants And Mothers’
Spontaneous abortion is experienced in an estimated 20-40 percent of undiagnosed pregnancies and in another 10 percent of diagnosed pregnancy. Usually the body aborts due to chromosomal abnormalities and this typically happened before the 12th week of pregnancy. Cramping and bleeding result and normal periods return after several months. Some women are more likely to have repeated miscarriages due to chromosomal, amniotic, or hormonal problems; but miscarriage can also be a result of defective sperm (Carroll et. al., 2003).
Problems of the Newborn
Low Birth Weight
We have been discussing a number of teratogens associated with low birth weight such as cocaine, tobacco, etc. A child is considered low birth weight if he or she weighs less than 5.8 pounds (2500 grams). About 8.2 percent of babies born in the United States are of low birth weight (Center for Disease Control, 2010). A low birth weight baby has difficulty maintaining adequate body temperature because it lacks the fat that would otherwise provide insulation. Such a baby is also at more risk for infection. And 67 percent of these babies are also preterm which can make them more at risk for respiratory infection. Very low birth weight babies (2 pounds or less) have an increased risk of developing cerebral palsy. Many causes of low birth weight are preventable with proper prenatal care, however.
Premature Birth
A child might also have a low birth weight if it is born at less than 37 weeks gestation (which qualifies it as a preterm baby). Early birth can be triggered by anything that disrupts the mother’s system. For instance, vaginal infections or gum disease can actually lead to premature birth because such infection causes the mother to release anti-inflammatory chemicals which, in turn, can trigger contractions. Smoking and the use of other teratogens can lead to preterm birth.
Anoxia
Anoxia is a temporary lack of oxygen to the brain. Difficulty during delivery may lead to anoxia which can result in brain damage or in severe cases, death.
Babies who suffer both low birth weight and anoxia are more likely to suffer learning disabilities later in life as well. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/03%3A_Prenatal_Development/3.04%3A_Pregnancy.txt |
Approaches to Childbirth
Prepared childbirth refers to being not only physically in good condition to help provide a healthy environment for the baby to develop, but also helping a couple to prepare to accept their new roles as parents and to get information and training that will assist them for delivery and life with the baby as much as possible. The more a couple can learn about childbirth and the newborn, the better prepared they will be for the adjustment they must make to a new life. (Nothing can prepare a couple for this completely). Once a couple finds that they are to have a child, they begin to conjure up images of what they think the experience will involve. Once the child is born, they must reconcile those images with reality (Galinsky, 1987). Knowing more of what to expect does help them in forming more realistic images thus making the adjustment easier. Let’s explore some of the methods of prepared childbirth.
The Dick-Read Method of Natural Childbirth
Grantley Dick-Read was an English obstetrician and pioneer of prepared childbirth in the 1930s. In his book Childbirth Without Fear, he suggests that the fear of childbirth increases tension and make the process of childbearing more painful. He believed that if mothers were educated, the fear and tension would be reduced and the need for medication could frequently be eliminated. The Dick-Read method emphasized the use of relaxation and proper breathing with contractions as well as family support and education. (For more current information on this method go to www.hypnobirthing.com) This method influenced the most commonly taught method in the U.S. today, the Lamaze Method.
The Lamaze Method
This method originated in Russia and was brought to the United States in the 1950s by Fernand Lamaze. The emphasis of this method is on teaching the woman to be in control in the process of delivery. It includes learning muscle relaxation, breathing though contractions, having a focal point (usually a picture to look at) during contractions and having a support person who goes through the training process with the mother and serves as a coach during delivery.
Birthing Centers/Birthing Rooms
The trend now is to have birthing rooms that are hospital rooms that look more like a suite in a hotel equipped with a bed that can be converted for delivery. These rooms are also equipped with a bed and monitoring systems for the newborn. However, many hospitals have only one or two of these rooms and availability can be a problem.
The LeBoyer Method
Other birthing options include the use of birthing chairs, which make use of gravity in assisting the woman giving birth and the Leboyer Method of “Gentle Birthing”. This method involves giving birth in a quiet, dimly lit room and allowing the newborn to lie on the mother’s stomach with the umbilical cord intact for sever minutes while being given a warm bath.
Home Birth and Nurse-Midwives
Historically in the United States, most babies were born under the care of lay midwives. In the 1920s, middle class women were increasingly using doctors to assist with childbirth but rural women were still being assisted by lay midwives. The nursing profession began educating nurse-midwives to assist these women. Nurse-midwives continued to assist most rural women with delivery until the 1970s and 1980s when their growth is thought to have posed a threat to the medical profession (Weitz, 2007). Since that time, nurse-midwives have found it more difficult to sustain practices with the high costs of malpractice insurance. (Many physicians have changed areas of specialization in response to these costs as well.) Women who are at low risk for birth complications can successfully deliver under the care of nurse-midwives but only 1 percent of births occur at home. Because one out of every 20 births involves a complication, most medical professionals recommend that delivery take place in a hospital. However, some couples choose to have their baby at home. About 1 percent of births occur out of a hospital in the United States. Two-thirds of these are homebirths and more than half of these are assisted by midwives. Midwives are trained and licensed to assist in delivery and are far less expensive than the cost of a hospital delivery. One-third of out-of-hospital births occur in freestanding clinics, birthing centers, or in physicians offices or other locations. In the United States, women who have had previous children, who are over 25 and who are white are more likely to have out-of-hospital births (MacDorman, et. als., 2010).
The Process of Delivery
The stages of childbirth.
The First Stage of labor begins with uterine contractions that may initially last about 30 seconds and be spaced 15 to 20 minutes apart. These increase in duration and frequency to more than a minute in length and about 3 to 4 minutes apart. Typically, doctors advise that they be called when contractions are coming about every 5 minutes. Some women experience false labor or Braxton-Hicks contractions, especially with the first child. These may come and go. They tend to diminish when the mother begins walking around. Real labor pains tend to increase with walking. Labor may also be signaled by a bloody discharge being expelled from the cervix. In one out of 8 pregnancies, the amniotic sac or water in which the fetus is suspended may break before labor begins. In such cases, the physician may induce labor with the use of medication if it does not begin in order to reduce the risk of infection. Normally this sac does not rupture until the later stages of labor.
The first stage of labor is typically the longest. During this stage the cervix or opening to the uterus dilates to 10 centimeters or just under 4 inches. This may take around 12-16 hours for first children or about 6-9 hours for women who have previously given birth. It takes one woman in 9 over 24 hours to dilate completely. Labor may also begin with a discharge of blood or amniotic fluid. If the amniotic sack breaks, labor will be induced if necessary to reduce the risk of infection.
The second stage involves the passage of the baby through the birth canal. This stage takes about 10-40 minutes. Contractions usually come about every 2-3 minutes. The mother pushes and relaxes as directed by the medical staff. Normally the head is delivered first. The baby is then rotated so that one shoulder can come through and then the other shoulder. The rest of the baby quickly passes through. At this stage, an episiotomy may be performed to avoid tearing the tissue of the back of the vaginal opening. The baby’s mouth and nose are suctioned out. The umbilical cord is clamped and cut.
The third stage is relatively painless. During this stage, the placenta or afterbirth is delivered. This typically within 20 minutes after delivery. If an episiotomy was performed it is stitched up during this stage.
Assessing the Neonate
There are several ways to assess the condition of the newborn. The most widely used tool is the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) developed by T. Berry Brazelton. This tool has been used around the world to help parents get to know their infants and to make comparisons of infants in different cultures (Brazelton & Nugent, 1995). The baby’s motor development, muscle tone, and stress response is assessed. The Apgar is conducted one minute and five minutes after birth. This is a very quick way to assess the newborn’s overall condition. Five measures are assessed: the heart rate, respiration, muscle tone (quickly assessed by a skilled nurse when the baby is handed to them or by touching the baby’s palm), reflex response (the Babinski reflex is tested), and color. A score of 0 to 2 is given on each feature examined. An Apgar of 5 or less is cause for concern. The second Apgar should indicate improvement with a higher score.
3.06: Maternal Mortality
Read this BBC article about why so many women worldwide still die in childbirth:
• Maternal mortality: why so many mothers die giving birth | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/03%3A_Prenatal_Development/3.05%3A_Childbirth.txt |
Lecture Transcript
Now we are going to begin the story of the lifespan. In this lesson, we explore the role of heredity and the environment in human development, prenatal development, and childbirth.
The epigenetic framework is an important tool for helping us understand the interplay between nature (or heredity) and nurture (or the environment). The terms suggest that the environment can trigger genetic potential.
Most human features are the product of several genes or are polygenic. And if you consult the causes of many diseases, you will find that they are caused by many factors or are multifactorial. Some examples include diabetes and heart disease. Some people are genetically more at risk, but lifestyle increases risk.
The basic building blocks of development are chromosomes and genes.
Chromosomes are long strands of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) which contains the blueprint or genetic code for our construction. Normal human cells (other than reproductive cells) have 46 chromosomes or 23 pair of chromosomes.
Genes are specific units on the strands of DNA. There are about 25,000-30,000 different human genes.
The Human Genome Project is an international research designed to explore and map the human genome. This mapping progressed rapidly and now there are questions and concerns about how to use the findings in an ethical, nondiscriminatory way. Questions about how to use this information in employment, insurance coverage, adoption, and other areas are still being considered.
Conception is the process whereby genetic material from our biological mother and father are combined to make up our own unique genetic code. This diagram of the female reproductive system shows the location of the mother’s eggs or ova in the ovaries. Each month a ripened egg is released from one of the ovaries and is drawn into the fallopian tubes. The father’s genetic material is housed in sperm and released into the vagina during ejaculation. Millions of sperm are released but only one will reach the egg, usually in the fallopian tube as it travels toward the uterus. The fertilized egg or zygote then becomes imbedded in the lining of the uterus where growth continues.
Watch the video assigned in this lesson, Life’s Greatest Miracle, for a more thorough and interesting presentation of this topic.
Gametes are reproductive cells. The sperm is the male reproductive cell. The ova are female reproductive cells. Gametes contain 23 chromosomes which is half the number of normal human cells. Sperm are produced beginning in puberty, at around age 12 in males, in a process known as spermatogenesis. Females are born with all of their eggs (about 300,000 to 400,000) but only about 400 of these eggs will ripen and mature, a process known as oogenesis, beginning at puberty. One of these ripened eggs is released each month during ovulation.
The fertilized egg is called a zygote. Fertilization typically occurs in the fallopian tube. A tubal or ectopic pregnancy occurs if the zygote becomes imbedded in the fallopian tube rather than in the uterus. These pregnancies are usually nonviable and very painful. Meiosis is a process in which genetic material from sperm and egg combine. After the 5th doubling of cells containing this combined material, cells begin to migrate and differentiate into layers that serve as the rudiments of organ tissue.
What determines the chromosomal sex of the child?
Twenty-two chromosomes from each parent are similar in length. You see these matched in this image on the right known as a karyotype.The twenty-third pair of chromosomes contains either two x chromosomes or an x and a y. Half of sperm contain a y chromosome. All of the ova contain x chromosomes. If the 23rd position contains two x chromosomes, the child will be female. If it contains and x and a y, the child will be male.
Can you select for either a male or female child?
Microsort is a company that allows couples to select for the sex of their child to either balance their offspring by sex or if they are known carriers of a sex-linked disorder. Visit the website to learn more about this.
Monozygotic (mono means one, zygote means fertilized egg) twins are genetically identical. They occur when a single fertilized egg splits apart after conception and each begin to develop. Identical twins are less common than non-identical twins and usually share the same phenotype (appearance). Dizygotic twins occur when two eggs are released and fertilized by two separate sperm. They do not share the same DNA. Rather, they are as genetically similar as would be any two siblings with the same biological parents. These are more common than identical twins and are becoming increasingly common with the use of fertility drugs that stimulate the release of eggs. There are also other possibilities, such as twins who share a fused placenta.
The word genotype refers to the actual genetic material contained in your cells. It is your genetic code. The word phenotype refers to the physical traits that are actually expressed in a person. It’s what you see when you look at the person next to you. Why is it that all of your genetic coding is not expressed?
What determines the expression of genes?
Some traits are expressed based on an additive pattern or the average of all of the genes you have inherited through the generations. Height and skin tone are traits that follow such a pattern. (Of course, your actual height can also be reduced without adequate nutrition.)
Other traits follow a dominant/recessive pattern which means that if dominant gene is paired with a recessive gene on your chromosomes, the dominant gene will be expressed. Curly hair is dominant gene linked. Red hair is a recessive trait. Some genes are expressed even though a particular member of a pair (or allele) is not totally dominant. Some alleles share dominance. For example, having wavy rather than straight or curly hair may be a result of partial dominance. Environmental factors can also trigger our make-up. One example is the relationship between oxygen deprivation triggering pain for those with sickle cell anemia.
Now let’s turn our attention to some abnormalities and disorders that are associated with chromosomes and genes. Chromosomal abnormalities occur when there is more than 23 pair of chromosomes in cells. The most common cause of these abnormalities is maternal age. There is some evidence that the age of the father can also be correlated with an increased risk of some kinds of diseases as well, but there is more to learn about this relationship. The most common chromosomal abnormality is Down syndrome usually caused by an additional copy of genetic material on the 21st chromosome. The likelihood of these increases with maternal age. It is estimated that half of all zygotes contain an abnormal number of chromosomes. Trisomy, for example, can occur on the 13th or 18th chromosome. Usually the organism is nonviable if this occurs on positions other than the 21st or 23rd.
Trisomy 21 is the cause of most Down syndrome. It is the most common chromosomal abnormality. Individuals with Down syndrome can experience varying degrees of intellectual developmental delay and have some distinctive physical features such as folds of skin that come lower over the eyes and short fingers and toes. However, it is important to note that there is more variation in individuals with Down syndrome than similarity.
Sex linked chromosomal abnormalities occur on the 23rd chromosome. There are numerous sex-linked disorders. The most common are Turner’s syndrome in females and Klinefelter’s Syndrome in males. Turner’s syndrome occurs when there is only one X chromosome on the 23rd position. Some possible signs of Turner Syndrome include being short, having a low hairline, no menstruation, and sterility.
Genetic disorders are associated with specific genes. Some are linked to dominant genes such as Huntington’s disease. Others, such as sickle-cell anemia and cystic fibrosis, are recessive disorders.
Let’s explore prenatal development. Prenatal development is divided into three periods: the germinal period, the embryonic period, and the fetal period.
The germinal period begins at conception and continues until the organism is attached to the lining of the uterus, about 14 days. During the germinal period, cells first make copies of them and then after reaching about 100 cells in number, begin to differentiate or specialize. The failure rate of organisms during this period is quite high at roughly 60 to 70 percent.
Once the organism is embedded in the lining of the uterus, it is referred to as an embryo. This lasts from the 3rd through the 8th week of development. During this period, all of the major structures of the body begin to form. This development occurs in two directions, from the midlife outward (proximodistal development) and from head to tail, known as cephalocaudal development. The failure rate during this stage is about 20 percent. At the end of this stage, the embryo takes on a distinctly human appearance.
The longest period of prenatal development is the fetal period which begins at the 9th week after conception and lasts until birth. By the 12th week, the genitals have formed. Development of all the structures of the body continues and by the end of the third month, all structures are present although immature. The 4th through the 6th month (also known as the second trimester of pregnancy) is a pivotal time. Reflexive action, sleep patterns, hearing, and dramatic spurts in the growth of the brain occur in this time frame. The fetus reaches the age of viability or the first chance of surviving outside the womb at about 24 weeks after gestation. During the last 3 months of development, the fetus gains weight and organ systems (particularly the digestive and respiratory systems) continue to mature. About 5 percent of fetuses fail during this period. Usually before 22 weeks.
Teratology is the study of factors that can contribute to birth defects. These can include pollutants, exposure to harmful substances such as drugs and alcohol, and maternal diseases.
The risks associated with teratogens depend on a number of variables. First is the timing of the exposure to a teratogenic substance. The structures that are forming are the most vulnerable to severe teratogenic effects or damage. You will see some of the critical periods for various structures in the following slide. The amount of exposure that can have a teratogenic effect depends on the size and metabolism of the mother. Genetics can also play a role in determining risk as is evidenced in the differences of defects found in dizygotic twin studies. Both have been exposed to the same prenatal environment, but the extent of damage can vary.
The most commonly used teratogen is alcohol. The effects of alcohol use are most significant if the mother drinks early in pregnancy, especially in the 2nd month of development. Moderate to heavy drinking has been associated with fetal alcohol damage.
Some problems associated with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders include learning difficulties, impaired motor skills (for example, a newborn may have trouble sucking), a flattened nose, widely spaced eyes, a small head, long term psychosocial problems such as social relationships or behavior in school, and neurological, kidney, bone and heart problems. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are the leading cause of intellectual developmental delay.
The use of tobacco early in pregnancy is associated with stunted growth. A mother who smokes later in her pregnancy can have a low birth weight baby. Placenta previa, SIDS, and neurological problems have also been associated with tobacco use.
Prescribed and over the counter medications can also be damaging. Good prenatal care and heading warning labels on those drugs is important for pregnant mothers. Illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and marijuana are also damaging. Heroin addiction can be passed on to the baby and is associated with preterm birth. Cocaine use is associated with stillbirths and low birth weight. Marijuana use is linked to neurological damage and ADHD. Pollutants, HIV and maternal diseases such as rubella can lead to neurological damage, HIV, and deafness, respectively.
We now turn our attention to pregnancy and childbirth.
Not all mothers experience pregnancy in the same ways. Some have more discomfort than others. Some commonly experienced discomforts include nausea, heartburn, backache, constipation, shortness of breath, and varicose veins. Nausea is common early in pregnancy as estrogen levels rise. The other symptoms increase as the baby grows and puts pressure on the body. These symptoms are rarely treated, however. Exercise, keeping one’s feet elevated, and delivery will ultimately relieve these symptoms.
Major complications of pregnancy include severe vomiting which can lead to dehydration. Threatened abortion occurs when the body begins to produce contractions early in the pregnancy. The mother may be advised to stay in bed, but sometimes a spontaneous miscarriage occurs. Preeclampsia is a condition that can occur after 20 weeks of pregnancy and involves headaches, increased blood pressure, swelling or edema, and a buildup of protein in the urine as the kidneys lose their ability to filter urine. An ectopic or tubal pregnancy in the fallopian tube and is typically surgically removed. Maternal mortality rates are very high in many parts of the world. A thousand women a day die in childbirth due to infection, excessive bleeding, and other complications of pregnancy.
Low birth weight babies weigh less than 5.8 pounds or less than 2500 grams. About 8.2 percent of babies in the United States are of low birth weight. Low birth weight is associated with smoking, alcohol use, poor nutrition, drug use, disease and infection. Low birth weight can result in infant mortality, respiratory infection (particularly if the baby is also preterm), and longer term developmental delay. Very low-birth weight babies are more at risk of developing cerebral palsy. Preterm babies are born before completing 37 weeks of development. About 13 percent of babies in the United States are preterm. Preterm babies are more at risk for low birth weight. Fetal anoxia or oxygen deprivation during delivery can lead to brain damage.
Now let’s explore a variety of approaches to childbirth. In the United States, there has been an emphasis on education or “prepared” childbirth to train couples about what to expect during labor and delivery.
The Dick-Read method of childbirth comes from the British obstetrician Grantly Dick-Read. He wrote a book in the 1940s called “Childbirth without Fear” in which he promoted the idea that pain is increased by fear and that education reduces a woman’s fear about childbirth. The Dick-Read method still enjoys a wide audience.
Fernand Lamaze, a French obstetrician, visited Russia and was impressed with their techniques of childbirth. He brought the principles of teaching a mother how to be in control during delivery, using a variety of breathing techniques to manage pain, and of having a coach to assist during delivery to his teaching about childbirth. His technique, known as the Lamaze Method, has been taught in the United States since the late 1950s.
There are many other approaches to childbirth. The LeBoyer method emphasizes gentle birthing under soft lighting and a soothing environment. Home births represent about 1 percent of all births in the United States. The majority of these are assisted by midwives.
About 1/3rd occur in free-standing birthing centers. Women who use birthing centers and midwives tend to be over 25, white, and have had previous children.
These are the stages of a normal delivery.
The first stage is the longest stage and can last on average about 12-16 hours for first babies and 6-9 hours for subsequent children.
During this stage, the uterus begins to contract and as labor progresses; contractions last longer and come more frequently. Minute long contractions that come 5 minutes apart are often used as the point at which to start preparing for delivery and to call your physician or midwife if available. The cervix or opening to the uterus begins to dilate to about 10 centimeters or just less than 4 inches in diameter. This stage may also be signaled by a bloody discharge or release of amniotic fluid if the amniotic sack breaks. In this case, labor must be induced if contractions aren’t progressing to reduce the risk of infection.
The second stage lasts about 10-40 minutes and involves the passage of the baby through the birth canal. In a normal delivery, the head is delivered first and the mother is encouraged to push and relax through contractions. A surgical incision known as an episiotomy may be made to extend the vaginal opening if needed.
The third stage involves the delivery of the placenta or afterbirth. If an episiotomy has been performed, it is now sutured. This is typically a relatively painless stage.
The condition of the newborn is often assessed at 1 minute and 5 minutes after delivery using the APGAR. The APGAR scale is a measure of heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, reflex response, and color. A skilled practitioner can conduct the APGAR easily and quickly. The newborn is given a score of 0 to 2 on each of the measures. A perfect APGAR would be a score of 10. But few babies receive a 10 on their first reading. Less than five is a cause for concern. The score should improve upon the second reading.
Another assessment that is often used is the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale. This is designed to look at the newborn’s neurological condition by witnessing the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system as it responds to stress as well as determining whether the baby has normal motor control. The baby’s motor development is examined perhaps by moving the baby and seeing if its head and eyes move to follow an object. Is the baby cuddly when held or is it flaccid or stiff? When the bottom of the baby’s feet is slapped, the baby should begin to cry in response to stress and the baby should be able to calm back down soon after as evidence of physiological control. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/03%3A_Prenatal_Development/3.07%3A_Prenatal_Development.txt |
Lifespan Development Module 1 Lesson 3 Slides: Newborn and Prenatal Development from Lumen Learning
3.09: Introduction and Prenatal Development
Introduction to Lifespan, Theories and Research, Beginnings (Lessons 1-3)
1. Describe the study of human development.
2. Distinguish between physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development.
3. What are the stages of the lifespan? Describe these.
4. What is meant by social class?
5. What is a cohort?
6. How might social class impact a person’s life chances?
7. Compare research methods noting the advantages and disadvantages of each.
8. What is confirmation bias and sampling bias?
9. Distinguish between independent and dependent variables.
10. Explain the conditions for establishing cause and effect relationships between variables.
11. Define theory.
12. Discuss in detail Freud’s theory of psychosexual development. Also explain the parts of the self, defense mechanisms, and fixation.
13. 13. Describe Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development.
14. Who is the father of developmental psychology?
15. Explain classical and operant conditioning principles. Which names would you associate with each?
16. Describe social learning theory including the concept of modeling.
17. Explain Piaget’s theory of cognitive development including the concepts of schema, assimilation, accommodation, cognitive equilibrium and the stages of intelligence.
18. Explain sociocultural theory of cognitive development.
19. Explain the ecological-systems approach to development.
20. What is the difference between genes and chromosomes? How do gametes differ from other normal human cells?
21. What determines the sex of the child?
22. Define polygenic and multifactorial.
23. Distinguish between dizygotic and monozygotic twins.
24. What is the difference between genetic and chromosomal abnormalities? List and describe some more common chromosomal abnormalities.
25. What happens during conception? Distinguish between the zygotic (germinal), embryonic, and fetal periods of development. Give details.
26. What is the age of viability? When is it?
27. Discuss some of the problems facing newborns. What is the APGAR?
28. Discuss some of the complications of pregnancy as well as a normal delivery.
29. Characterize approaches to childbirth and a normal birth process.
30. What are teratogens? Give examples.
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3.10: Introduction to Lifespan Theories and Research Beginnings
1. Bob is the vice-president of a medium sized company in a suburb of Seattle. He has two new cars, a large home with a sauna, new clothes, and takes many trips with his family. He also carries \$21,000 of debt on his credit cards and struggles to make his payments. Bob would be considered part of which social class?
1. working class
2. underclass
3. working poor
4. none of the above
2. The middle class may cope with stressors by shopping or traveling. But, according to your reading, the poor are more likely to cope with stress by eating and:
1. arguing
2. smoking
3. going to night clubs
4. shopping
3. The ecological-systems perspective of human develop emphasizes
1. the importance of the physical environment, including pollutants, in affecting development.
2. the relationship between the individual and the environment including social systems such as family, community and school.
3. the comparison of social systems in cultures with various types of subsistence patterns with and emphasis on hunter-gatherers and herding societies.
4. the extent to which a person acts according to the “pleasure principle” or the “reality principle.”
4. Sharon wants to show how third graders in the United States learn from "reading buddy" programs. She established several of these programs in area schools and firmly believes that they are successful. She constructs a survey to give to her colleagues who support the program and offers the results to the local school board to promote the growth of such programs. This example illustrates which aspect of research?
1. The use of simple random samples.
2. Observational studies.
3. Confirmation bias.
4. Secondary analysis.
5. Researcher Smith uses a variety of techniques to learn as much as possible about Mr. Jordan who had to relocate to Houston after losing everything in Hurricane Katrina. Researcher Smith is using which method of research?
1. Experiment
2. Survey
3. Case study
4. Cross-sectional study
6. According to Erikson, a three month old is in which psychosocial stage?
1. autonomy vs. shame and doubt
2. trust vs. mistrust
3. integrity vs. despair
4. caring vs. doing
7. Drives and urges are relatively quiet during this stage, according to Freud.
1. the anal stage
2. the latent stage
3. the oral stage
4. the genital stage
8. Chad feels guilty because he cheated on an exam. Which part of the self is responsible for this sense of guilt?
1. The ego.
2. The id.
3. The superego.
4. The 'looking-glass' self.
9. Learning to think by using symbols such as language is a major part of this stage.
1. Sensorimotor.
2. Preoperational.
3. Operational.
4. Post formal.
10. This stage is experienced in early adulthood, according to Erikson.
1. trust vs. mistrust
2. industry vs. inferiority
3. intimacy vs. isolation
4. identity vs. role confusion
11. The more prolonged the level of stress, the weaker the immune system. What is the independent variable?
1. The duration of stress.
2. The strength of the immune system.
3. The level of stress.
4. The person whose stress level is measured.
12. Sperm and ova have:
1. 23 genes
2. 46 chromosomes
3. 46 pair of genes
4. 23 chromosomes
13. Effects of ARBD (alcohol related birth defects) include:
1. bone damage.
2. heart damage.
3. liver damage.
4. all of the above.
14. An organism is least likely to survive which stage of prenatal development?
1. The germinal stage
2. The embryonic stage
3. The fetal stage
4. Failure rates are the same throughout prenatal development.
15. Which type of births are most common?
1. Birth of dizygotic twins.
2. Birth of monozygotic twins.
3. Birth of dizygotic triplets.
4. Births of monozygotic triplets.
16. A dog learns to sit in order to get a treat. This best illustrates:
1. social learning theory
2. operant conditioning
3. classical conditioning
4. trial and error learning
17. A dog is shocked at the time a bell rings. Eventually, the dog begins to jump in fear at the sound of a bell. What is the unconditioned response?
1. The sound of the bell.
2. The jumping when a bell is sounded.
3. Jumping to the shock.
4. The administration of the shock.
18. This method of prepared childbirth encourages mothers to have a coach to help guide them through the birth process.
1. The Dick-Read method.
2. The Lamaze method.
3. The Leboyer method.
4. The Chambers method.
19. This theorist emphasized the potential a child has to learn if given guidance.
1. Freud
2. Piaget
3. Vygotsky
4. Pavlov
20. The cohort effect is most noticable with which level of analysis?
1. microsystem analysis
2. macrosystem analysis
3. exosystem analysis
4. chronosystem analysis | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/03%3A_Prenatal_Development/3.08%3A_Prenatal_Development.txt |
Click on the link below to view a sequel to one of the most popular NOVA videos of all time, “Miracle of Life.” The program tracks human development from embryo to newborn using the extraordinary microimagery of Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson.
• Life’s Greatest Miracle
3.12: Unit 1 Exam
1. Bob is the vice-president of a medium sized company in a suburb of Seattle. He has two new cars, a large home with a sauna, new clothes, and takes many trips with his family. He also carries \$21,000 of debt on his credit cards and struggles to make his payments. Bob would be considered part of which social class?
A) working class
B) underclass
C) working poor
D) none of the above
2.The middle class may cope with stressors by shopping or traveling. But, according to your reading, the poor are more likely to cope with stress by eating and:
A) arguing
B) smoking
C) going to night clubs
D) shopping
3. The ecological-systems perspective of human develop emphasizes
A) the importance of the physical environment, including pollutants, in affecting development.
B) the relationship between the individual and the environment including social systems such as family, community and school.
C) the comparison of social systems in cultures with various types of subsistence patterns with and emphasis on hunter-gatherers and herding societies.
D) the extent to which a person acts according to the “pleasure principle” or the “reality principle.”
4. Sharon wants to show how third graders in the United States learn from “reading buddy” programs. She established several of these programs in area schools and firmly believes that they are successful. She constructs a survey to give to her colleagues who support the program and offers the results to the local school board to promote the growth of such programs. This example illustrates which aspect of research?
A) The use of simple random samples.
B) Observational studies.
C) Confirmation bias.
D) Secondary analysis.
5. Researcher Smith uses a variety of techniques to learn as much as possible about Mr. Jordan who had to relocate to Houston after losing everything in Hurricane Katrina. Researcher Smith is using which method of research?
A) Experiment
B) Survey
C) Case study
D) Cross-sectional study
6.According to Erikson, a three month old is in which psychosocial stage?
A) autonomy vs. shame and doubt
B) trust vs. mistrust
C) integrity vs. despair
D) caring vs. doing
7. Drives and urges are relatively quiet during this stage, according to Freud.
A) the anal stage
B) the latent stage
C) the oral stage
D) the genital stage
8. Chad feels guilty because he cheated on an exam. Which part of the self is responsible for this sense of guilt?
A) The ego.
B) The id.
C) The superego.
D) The ‘looking-glass’ self.
9. Learning to think by using symbols such as language is a major part of this stage.
A) Sensorimotor.
B) Preoperational.
C) Operational.
D) Post formal.
10. This stage is experienced in early adulthood, according to Erikson.
A) trust vs. mistrust
B) industry vs. inferiority
C) intimacy vs. isolation
D) identity vs. role confusion
11. The more prolonged the level of stress, the weaker the immune system. What is the independent variable?
A) The duration of stress.
B) The strength of the immune system.
C) The level of stress.
D) The person whose stress level is measured.
12. Sperm and ova have:
A) 23 genes
B) 46 chromosomes
C) 46 pair of genes
D) 23 chromosomes
13. Effects of ARBD (alcohol related birth defects) include:
A) bone damage.
B) heart damage.
C) liver damage.
D) all of the above.
14. An organism is least likely to survive which stage of prenatal development?
A) The germinal stage
B) The embryonic stage
C) The fetal stage
D) Failure rates are the same throughout prenatal development.
15. Which type of births are most common?
A) Birth of dizygotic twins.
B) Birth of monozygotic twins.
C) Birth of dizygotic triplets.
D) Births of monozygotic triplets.
16. A dog learns to sit in order to get a treat. This best illustrates:
A) social learning theory
B) operant conditioning
C) classical conditioning
D) trial and error learning
17. A dog is shocked at the time a bell rings. Eventually, the dog begins to jump in fear at the sound of a bell. What is the unconditioned response?
A) The sound of the bell.
B) The jumping when a bell is sounded.
C) Jumping to the shock.
D) The administration of the shock.
18. This method of prepared childbirth encourages mothers to have a coach to help guide them through the birth process.
A) The Dick-Read method.
B) The Lamaze method.
C) The Leboyer method.
D) The Chambers method.
19. This theorist emphasized the potential a child has to learn if given guidance.
A) Freud
B) Piaget
C) Vygotsky
D) Pavlov
20. The cohort effect is most noticeable with which level of analysis?
A) microsystem analysis
B) macrosystem analysis
C) exosystem analysis
D) chronosystem analysis | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/03%3A_Prenatal_Development/3.11%3A_Life%27s_Greatest_Miracle.txt |
• 4.1: Introduction to Infancy
Contemporary educators, healthcare providers, and parents have focused on most heavily on the period of life from birth to about two years of age because changes during this time are so dramatic and so noticeable and perhaps because we have assumed that what happens during these years provides a foundation for one’s life to come. However, it has been argued that the significance of development during these years has been overstated.
• 4.2: Physical Development
For the first few days of life, infants typically lose about 5 percent of their body weight as they eliminate waste and get used to feeding. Some of the most dramatic physical change that occurs during this period is in the brain. Infants are equipped with a number of reflexes which are involuntary movements in response to stimulation. The womb is a dark environment void of visual stimulation. Consequently, vision is the most poorly developed sense at birth.
• 4.3: Nutrition
Breast milk is considered the ideal diet for newborns. It has the right amount of calories, fat, and protein to support overall physical and neurological development, it provides a source of iron more easily absorbed in the body than the iron found in dietary supplements, it provides a resistance against many diseases, it is more easily digested by infants than is formula, and it helps babies make a transition to solid foods more easily than if bottle fed.
• 4.4: Cognitive Development
Piaget describes intelligence in infancy as sensorimotor or based on direct, physical contact. Infants taste, feel, pound, push, hear, and move in order to experience the world.
• 4.5: Language Development
Do newborns communicate? Certainly, they do. They do not, however, communicate with the use of language. Instead, they communicate their thoughts and needs with body posture (being relaxed or still), gestures, cries, and facial expressions. A person who spends adequate time with an infant can learn which cries indicate pain and which ones indicate hunger, discomfort, or frustration.
• 4.6: Psychosocial Development and Attachment
At birth, infants exhibit two emotional responses: attraction and withdrawal. They show attraction to pleasant situations that bring comfort, stimulation, and pleasure. And they withdraw from unpleasant stimulation such as bitter flavors or physical discomfort. At around two months, infants exhibit social engagement in the form of social smiling as they respond with smiles to those who engage their positive attention.
• 4.7: Temperament
Temperament is an inborn quality noticeable soon after birth. Most children do not have their temperament clinically measured, but categories of temperament have been developed and are seen as useful in understanding and working with children. These categories include easy or flexible, slow to warm up or cautious, difficult or feisty, and undifferentiated. Temperament doesn’t change dramatically as we grow up, but we may learn how to work around and manage our temperamental qualities.
• 4.8: Psychosocial Development
Rapid physical growth, neurological development, language acquisition, the movement from hands on to mental learning, an expanding emotional repertoire, and the initial conceptions of self and others make the first two years of life very exciting. These abilities are shaped into more sophisticated mental processes, self-concepts, and social relationships during the years of early childhood.
• 4.9: Infancy
• 4.10: Infancy
Thumbnail: Eight month-old infant; as a common feature eyes are usually larger compared to the face. (CC BY-SA 4.0; Avsararas).
04: Infancy
Learning Objectives
• Summarize overall physical growth during infancy.
• Describe the growth of the brain during infancy.
• Contrast development of the senses in newborns.
• Compare gross and fine motor skills and give examples of each.
• Explain the merits of breastfeeding.
• Discuss nutritional concerns of marasmus and kwashiorkor.
• List and describe the six substages of sensorimotor intelligence.
• Describe stages of language development during infancy.
• Define babbling, holophrasic speech, and overregularization.
• Contrast styles of attachment.
• Discuss the importance of temperament and goodness of fit.
• Describe self-awareness, stranger wariness, and separation anxiety.
• Use Erikson’s theory to characterize psychosocial development during infancy.
Introduction
Welcome to the story of development from infancy through toddlerhood; from birth until about two years of age. Researchers have given this part of the life span more attention than any other period, perhaps because changes during this time are so dramatic and so noticeable and perhaps because we have assumed that what happens during these years provides a foundation for one’s life to come. However, it has been argued that the significance of development during these years has been overstated (Bruer, 1999). Nevertheless, this is a period of life that contemporary educators, healthcare providers, and parents have focused on most heavily. We will examine growth and nutrition during infancy, cognitive development during the first 2 years, and then turn our attention toward attachments formed in infancy.
REFERENCES
Berger, K. S. (2001). The developing person through the life span. New York: Worth.
Berger, K. S. (2005). The developing person through the life span (6th ed.). New York: Worth.
Berk, L. E. (n.d.). Development through the life span (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Bruer, J. T. (1999). The myth of the first three years: A new understanding of early brain development and lifelong learning. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Chess, S., & Thomas, A. (1996). Temperament: Theory and practice. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Children’s Welfare. (1998). Welfarem-L Digest, june 25. Retrieved August 10, 2006, from [email protected]
Hart, S., & Carrington, H. (2002). Jealousy in 6-month-old infants. Infancy, 3(3), 395-402.
LeVine, R. A., Dixon, S., LeVine, S., Richman, A., Leiderman, P. H., Keefer, C. H., & Brazelton, T. B. (1994). Child care and culture: Lessons from Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.
O’Connor, T. G., Marvin, R. S., Rotter, M., Olrich, J. T., Britner, P. A., & The English and Romanian Adoptees Study Team. (2003). Child-parent attachment following early institutional deprivation. Development and Psychopathology, 15, 19-38.
Sen, M. G., Yonas, A., & Knill, D. C. (2001). Development of infants’ sensitivity to surface contour information for spatial layout. Perception, 30, 167-176.
Van Ijzendoorn, M. H., & Sagi, A. (n.d.). Cross-cultural patterns of attachment. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 713-734). New York: Guilford.
Webb, S. J., Monk, C. S., & Nelson, C. A. (2001). Mechanisms of postnatal neurobiological development: Implications for human development. Developmental Neuropsychology, 19, 147-171. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/04%3A_Infancy/4.01%3A_Introduction_to_Infancy.txt |
Overall Physical Growth
The average newborn in the United States weighs about 7.5 pounds and is about 20 inches in length. For the first few days of life, infants typically lose about 5 percent of their body weight as they eliminate waste and get used to feeding. This often goes unnoticed by most parents, but can be cause for concern for those who have a smaller infant. This weight loss is temporary, however, and is followed by a rapid period of growth. By the time an infant is 4 months old, it usually doubles in weight and by one year has tripled it birth weight. By age 2, the weight has quadrupled. The average length at one year is about 26-32 inches.
Body Proportions
Another dramatic physical change that takes place in the first several years of life is the change in body proportions. The head initially makes up about 50 percent of our entire length when we are developing in the womb. At birth, the head makes up about 25 percent of our length (think about how much of your length would be head if the proportions were still the same!). By age 25 it comprises about 20 percent our length. Imagine now how difficult it must be to raise one’s head during the first year of life! And indeed, if you have ever seen a 2 to 4 month old infant lying on the stomach trying to raise the head, you know how much of a challenge this is.
The Brain in the First Two Years
Some of the most dramatic physical change that occurs during this period is in the brain. At birth, the brain is about 25 percent its adult weight and this is not true for any other part of the body. By age 2, it is at 75 percent its adult weight, at 95 percent by age 6 and at 100 percent by age 7 years.
While most of the brain’s 100 to 200 billion neurons are present at birth, they are not fully mature and during the next several years dendrites or connections between neurons will undergo a period of transient exuberance or temporary dramatic growth. There is a proliferation of these dendrites during the first two years so that by age 2, a single neuron might have thousands of dendrites. After this dramatic increase, the neural pathways that are not used will be eliminated thereby making those that are used much stronger. This activity is occurring primarily in the cortex or the thin outer covering of the brain involved in voluntary activity and thinking. The prefrontal cortex that is located behind our forehead continues to grow and mature throughout childhood and experiences an addition growth spurt during adolescence. It is the last part of the brain to mature and will eventually comprise 85 percent of the brain’s weight. Experience will shape which of these connections are maintained and which of these are lost. Ultimately, about 40 percent of these connections will be lost (Webb, Monk, and Nelson, 2001). As the prefrontal cortex matures, the child is increasingly able to regulate or control emotions, to plan activity, strategize, and have better judgment. Of course, this is not fully accomplished in infancy and toddlerhood, but continues throughout childhood and adolescence.
Another major change occurring in the central nervous system is the development of myelin, a coating of fatty tissues around the axon of the neuron. Myelin helps insulate the nerve cell and speed the rate of transmission of impulses from one cell to another. This enhances the building of neural pathways and improves coordination and control of movement and thought processes. The development of myelin continues into adolescence but is most dramatic during the first several years of life.
From Reflexes to Voluntary Movements
Infants are equipped with a number of reflexes which are involuntary movements in response to stimulation. These include the sucking reflex (infants suck on objects that touch their lips automatically), the rooting reflex, which involves turning toward any object that touches the cheek, the palmar grasp (the infant will tightly grasp any object placed in its palm), and the dancing reflex evidence when the infant is held in a standing position and moves its feet up and down alternately as if dancing. These movements occur automatically and are signals that the infant is functioning well neurologically. Within the first several weeks of life these reflexes are replaced with voluntary movements or motor skills.
Gross Motor Skills
These voluntary movements involve the use of large muscle groups and are typically large movements of the arms, legs, head, and torso. These skills begin to develop first. Examples include moving to bring the chin up when lying on the stomach, moving the chest up, rocking back and forth on hands and knees. But it also includes exploring an object with one’s feet as many babies do as early as 8 weeks of age if seated in a carrier or other devise that frees the hips. This may be easier than reaching for an object with the hands, which requires much more practice (Berk, 2007). And sometimes an infant will try to move toward an object while crawling and surprisingly move backward because of the greater amount of strength in the arms than in the legs!
Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills are more exact movements of the hands and fingers and include the ability to reach and grasp an object. Newborns cannot grasp objects voluntarily but do wave their arms toward objects of interest. At about 4 months of age, the infant is able to reach for an object, first with both arms and within a few weeks, with only one arm. Grasping an object involves the use of the fingers and palm, but no thumbs. Stop reading for a moment and try to grasp an object using these fingers and the palm. How does that feel? How much control do you have over the object? If it is a pen or pencil, are you able to write with it? Can you draw a picture? The answer is probably not. Use of the thumb comes at about 9 months of age when the infant is able to grasp an object using the forefinger and thumb. This ability greatly enhances the ability to control and manipulate an object and infants take great delight in this newfound ability. They may spend hours picking up small objects from the floor and placing them in containers. By 9 months, an infant can also watch a moving object, reach for it as it approaches and grab it. This is quite a complicated set of actions if we remember how difficult this would have been just a few months earlier.
Sensory Development
Vision
The womb is a dark environment void of visual stimulation. Consequently, vision is the most poorly developed sense at birth. Newborns typically cannot see further than 8 to 16 inches away from their faces, have difficulty keeping a moving object within their gaze, and can detect contrast more than color differences. If you have ever seen a newborn struggle to see, you can appreciate the cognitive efforts being made to take in visual stimulation and build those neural pathways between the eye and the brain. When you glance at a person, where do you look? Chances are you look into their eyes. If so why? It is probably because there is more information there than in other parts of the face. Newborns do not scan objects this way; rather, they tend to look at the chin another less detailed part of the face. However, by 2 or 3 months, they will seek more detail when exploring an object visually and begin showing preferences for unusual images over familiar ones and for patterns over solids and faces over patterns and three-dimensional objects over flat images. Newborns have difficulty distinguishing between colors, but within a few months are able to discrimination between colors as well as do adults. Infants can also sense depth as binocular vision develops at about 2 months of age. By 6 months, the infant can perceive depth perception in pictures as well (Sen, Yonas, and Knill, 2001). Infants who have experience crawling and exploring will pay greater attention to visual cues of depth and modify their actions accordingly (Berk, 2007).
Hearing
The infant’s sense of hearing is very keen at birth. If you remember, this ability to hear is evidenced as soon as the 5th month of prenatal development. In fact, an infant can distinguish between very similar sounds as early as one month after birth and can distinguish between a familiar and non-familiar voice even earlier. Some of this ability will be lost by 7 or 8 months as a child becomes familiar with the sounds of a particular language and less sensitive to sounds that are part of an unfamiliar language.
Other Senses
Newborns can distinguish between sour, bitter, sweet, and salty flavors and show a preference for sweet flavors. They are sensitive to touch and can distinguish between their mother’s scent and that of others. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/04%3A_Infancy/4.02%3A_Physical_Development.txt |
Breast milk is considered the ideal diet for newborns. It has the right amount of calories, fat, and protein to support overall physical and neurological development, it provides a source of iron more easily absorbed in the body than the iron found in dietary supplements, it provides a resistance against many diseases, it is more easily digested by infants than is formula, and it helps babies make a transition to solid foods more easily than if bottle fed. For all of these reasons, it is recommended that mothers breast feed their infants until at least 6 months of age and that breast milk be used in the diet throughout the first year (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004a in Berk, 2007).
However, most mothers who breastfeed in the United States stop breast feeding at about 6-8 weeks, often in order to return to work outside the home. Mothers can certainly continue to provide breast milk to their babies by expressing and freezing the milk to be bottle fed at a later time or by being available to their infants at feeding time, but some mothers find that after the initial encouragement they receive in the hospital to breast feed, the outside world is less supportive of such efforts. Some workplaces support breastfeeding mothers by providing flexible schedules and welcoming infants, but many do not. And the public support of breastfeeding is sometimes lacking. Women in Canada are more likely to breastfeed than are those in the United States and the Canadian health recommendation is for breastfeeding to continue until 2 years of age. Facilities in public places in Canada such as malls, ferries, and workplaces provide more support and comfort for the breastfeeding mother and child than found in the United States.
One early argument given to promote the practice of breastfeeding was that it promoted bonding and healthy emotional development for infants. However, this does not seem to be the case. Breastfed and bottle-fed infants adjust equally well emotionally (Ferguson and Woodward, 1999). This is good news for mothers who may be unable to breastfeed for a variety of reasons and for fathers who might feel left out as a result.
In addition to the nutritional benefits of breastfeeding, breast milk is free! Anyone who has priced formula recently can appreciate this added incentive to breastfeeding. Prices for a month’s worth of formula can easily range from \$130-200. Breastfeeding also stimulates contractions in the uterus to help it regain its normal size. And women who breastfeed are more likely to space their pregnancies further apart.
A Historic Look at Breastfeeding
The use of wet nurses, or lactating women hired to nurse others’ infants, during the middle ages eventually declined and mothers increasingly breastfed their own infants in the late 1800s. In the early part of the 20th century, breastfeeding began to go through another decline and by the 1950s, it was practiced less frequently by middle class, more affluent mothers as formula began to be viewed as superior to breast milk. In the late 1960s and 1970s, greater emphasis began to be placed on natural childbirth and breastfeeding and the benefits of breastfeeding were more widely publicized. Gradually rates of breastfeeding began to climb, particularly among middle-class educated mothers who received the strongest messages to breastfeed. Today, women receive consultation from lactation specialists before being discharged from the hospital to ensure that they are informed of the benefits of breastfeeding and given support and encouragement to get their infants to get used to taking the breast. This does not always happen immediately and first time mothers, especially, can become upset or discouraged. In this case, lactation specialists and nursing staff can encourage the mother to keep trying until baby and mother are comfortable with the feeding.
Global Considerations and Malnutrition
In the 1960s, formula companies led campaigns in developing countries to encourage mothers to feed their babies on infant formula. Many mothers felt that formula would be superior to breast milk and began using formula. The use of formula can certainly be healthy under conditions in which there is adequate, clean water with which to mix the formula and adequate means to sanitize bottles and nipples. However, in many of these countries such conditions were not available and babies often were given diluted, contaminated formula which made them become sick with diarrhea and become dehydrated. Rates of breast feeding declined in Peru from 90 percent to 10 percent in just 8 years time (Berger, 2001). These conditions continue today and now many hospitals prohibit the distribution of formula samples to new mothers in efforts to get them to rely on breast feeding. Many of these mothers do not understand the benefits of breast feeding and have to be encouraged and supported in order to promote this practice. Breast feeding could save the lives of millions of infants each year, according to the World Health Organization, yet fewer than 40 percent of infants are breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months of life. Find out more at the WHO’s 10 facts on breastfeeding. Most women can breastfeed unless they are receiving chemotherapy or radiation therapy, have HIV, are dependent on illicit drugs, or have active, untreated tuberculosis.
Children in developing countries and countries experiencing the harsh conditions of war are at risk for two major types of malnutrition. Infantile marasmus refers to starvation due to a lack of calories and protein. Children who do not receive adequate nutrition lose fat and muscle until their bodies can no longer function. Babies who are breast fed are much less at risk of malnutrition than those who are bottle fed. After weaning, children who have diets deficient in protein may experience kwashiorkor or the “disease of the displaced child” often occurring after another child has been born and taken over breastfeeding. This results in a loss of appetite and swelling of the abdomen as the body begins to break down the vital organs as a source of protein.
Kwashiorkor (Photo Courtesy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
The Breast Milk Industry
The benefits of breast milk are well-known and publicized. The collection and distribution of breast milk has become a million dollar industry supplying hospitals and others in need of the ideal diet. For more information, go to www.prolacta.com to see a current development in the story of breast milk.
Milk Anemia in the United States
About 9 million children in the United States are malnourished (Children’s Welfare, 1998). More still suffer from milk anemia, a condition in which milk consumption leads to a lack of iron in the diet. This can be due to the practice of giving toddlers milk as a pacifier-when resting, when riding, when waking, and so on. Appetite declines somewhat during toddlerhood and a small amount of milk (especially with added chocolate syrup) can easily satisfy a child’s appetite for many hours. The calcium in milk interferes with the absorption of iron in the diet as well. Many preschools and daycare centers give toddlers a drink after they have finished their meal in order to prevent spoiling their appetites.
4.04: Cognitive Development
Stage Five: Active Experimentation of Little Scientists (12th through 18th months)
Infants from one year to 18 months of age more actively engage in experimentation to learn about the physical world. Gravity is learned by pouring water from a cup or pushing bowls from high chairs. The caregiver tries to help the child by picking it up again and placing it on the tray. And what happens? Another experiment! The child pushes it off the tray again causing it to fall and the caregiver to pick it up again! A closer examination of this stage causes us to really appreciate how much learning is going on at this time and how many things we come to take for granted must actually be learned. I remember handing my daughters (who are close in age) when they were both seated in the back seat of the car a small container of candy. They struggled to move the pieces up and out of the small box and became frustrated when their fingers would lose their grip on the treats before they made it up and out of the top of the boxes. They had not yet learned to simply use gravity and turn the box over in their hands! This is a wonderful and messy time of experimentation and most learning occurs by trial and error.
Stage Six: Mental Representations (18th month to 2 years of age)
The child is now able to solve problems using mental strategies, to remember something heard days before and repeat it, to engage in pretend play, and to find objects that have been moved even when out of sight. Take for instance, the child who is upstairs in a room with the door closed, supposedly taking a nap. The doorknob has a safety device on it that makes it impossible for the child to turn the knob. After trying several times in vain to push the door or turn the doorknob, the child carries out a mental strategy to get the door opened-he knocks on the door! Obviously, this is a technique learned from the past experience of hearing a knock on the door and observing someone opening the door. The child is now better equipped with mental strategies for problem-solving. This initial movement from the “hands-on” approach to knowing about the world to the more mental world of stage six marked the transition to preoperational intelligence that we will discuss in the next lesson. Part of this stage involves learning to use language. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/04%3A_Infancy/4.03%3A_Nutrition.txt |
Do newborns communicate? Certainly, they do. They do not, however, communicate with the use of language. Instead, they communicate their thoughts and needs with body posture (being relaxed or still), gestures, cries, and facial expressions. A person who spends adequate time with an infant can learn which cries indicate pain and which ones indicate hunger, discomfort, or frustration.
Baby boy at 8 months.
Intentional Vocalizations: Cooing and taking turns: Infants begin to vocalize and repeat vocalizations within the first couple of months of life. That gurgling, musical vocalization called cooing can serve as a source of entertainment to an infant who has been laid down for a nap or seated in a carrier on a car ride. Cooing serves as practice for vocalization as well as the infant hears the sound of his or her own voice and tries to repeat sounds that are entertaining. Infants also begin to learn the pace and pause of conversation as they alternate their vocalization with that of someone else and then take their turn again when the other person’s vocalization has stopped. Cooing initially involves making vowel sounds like “oooo”. Later, consonants are added to vocalizations such as “nananananana”.
Babbling and gesturing: At about four to six months of age, infants begin making even more elaborate vocalizations that include the sounds required for any language. Guttural sounds, clicks, consonants, and vowel sounds stand ready to equip the child with the ability to repeat whatever sounds are characteristic of the language heard. Eventually, these sounds will no longer be used as the infant grow more accustomed to a particular language. Deaf babies also use gestures to communicate wants, reactions, and feelings. Because gesturing seems to be easier than vocalization for some toddlers, sign language is sometimes taught to enhance one’s ability to communicate by making use of the ease of gesturing. The rhythm and pattern of language is used when deaf babies sign just as it is when hearing babies babble.
Understanding: At around ten months of age, the infant can understand more than he or she can say. You may have experienced this phenomenon as well if you have ever tried to learn a second language. You may have been able to follow a conversation more easily than to contribute to it.
Holophrasic speech: Children begin using their first words at about 12 or 13 months of age and may use partial words to convey thoughts at even younger ages. These one word expressions are referred to as holophrasic speech. For example, the child may say “ju” for the word “juice” and use this sound when referring to a bottle. The listener must interpret the meaning of the holophrase and when this is someone who has spent time with the child, interpretation is not too difficult. They know that “ju” means “juice” which means the baby wants some milk! But, someone who has not been around the child will have trouble knowing what is meant. Imagine the parent who to a friend exclaims, “Ezra’s talking all the time now!” The friend hears only “ju da ga” which, the parent explains, means “I want some milk when I go with Daddy.”
Underextension: A child who learns that a word stands for an object may initially think that the word can be used for only that particular object. Only the family’s Irish Setter is a “doggie”. This is referred to as underextension. More often, however, a child may think that a label applies to all objects that are similar to the original object. In overextension all animals become “doggies”, for example.
First words and cultural influences: First words if the child is using English tend to be nouns. The child labels objects such as cup or ball. In a verb-friendly language such as Chinese, however, children may learn more verbs. This may also be due to the different emphasis given to objects based on culture. Chinese children may be taught to notice action and relationship between objects while children from the United States may be taught to name an object and its qualities (color, texture, size, etc.). These differences can be seen when comparing interpretations of art by older students from China and the United States.
Vocabulary growth spurt: One year olds typically have a vocabulary of about 50 words. But by the time they become toddlers, they have a vocabulary of about 200 words and begin putting those words together in telegraphic speech (I think of it now as ‘text message’ speech because texting is more common and is similar in that text messages typically only include the minimal amout of words to convey the message).
Two word sentences and telegraphic (text message?) speech: Words are soon combined and 18 month old toddlers can express themselves further by using expressions such as “baby bye-bye” or “doggie pretty”. Words needed to convey messages are used, but the articles and other parts of speech necessary for grammatical correctness are not yet used. These expressions sound like a telegraph (or perhaps a better analogy today would be that they read like a text message) where unnecessary words are not used. “Give baby ball” is used rather than “Give the baby the ball.” Or a text message of “Send money now!” rather than “Dear Mother. I really need some money to take care of my expenses“ You get the idea.
Child-directed speech: Why is a horse a “horsie”? Have you ever wondered why adults tend to use “baby talk” or that sing-song type of intonation and exaggeration used when talking to children? This represents a universal tendency and is known as child-directed speech or motherese or parentese. It involves exaggerating the vowel and consonant sounds, using a high-pitched voice, and delivering the phrase with great facial expression. Why is this done? It may be in order to clearly articulate the sounds of a word so that the child can hear the sounds involved. Or it may be because when this type of speech is used, the infant pays more attention to the speaker and this sets up a pattern of interaction in which the speaker and listener are in tuned with one another. When I demonstrate this in class, the students certainly pay attention and look my way. Amazing! It also works in the college classroom!
Theories of Language Development
The first two theories of language development represent two extremes in the level of interaction required for language to occur (Berk, 2007).
Chomsky and the language acquisition device: The view known as nativism advocated by Noam Chomsky suggests that infants are equipped with a neurological construct referred to as the language acquisition device or LAD that makes infants ready for language. Language develops as long as the infant is exposed to it. No teaching, training, or reinforcement is required for language to develop.
Skinner and reinforcement: Learning theorist, B. F. Skinner, suggests that language develops through the use of reinforcement. Sounds, words, gestures and phrases are encouraged through by following the behavior with words of praise or treats or any thing that increases the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated.
Social pragmatics: Another view emphasizes the child’s active engagement in learning language out of a need to communicate. The child seeks information, memorizes terms, imitates the speech heard from others and learns to conceptualize using words as language is acquired. Many would argue that all three of these dynamics foster the acquisition of language (Berger, 2004). | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/04%3A_Infancy/4.05%3A_Language_Development.txt |
Emotional Development
At birth, infants exhibit two emotional responses: attraction and withdrawal. They show attraction to pleasant situations that bring comfort, stimulation, and pleasure. And they withdraw from unpleasant stimulation such as bitter flavors or physical discomfort. At around two months, infants exhibit social engagement in the form of social smiling as they respond with smiles to those who engage their positive attention. Pleasure is expressed as laughter at 3 to 5 months of age, and displeasure becomes more specific fear, sadness, or anger between ages 6 and 8 months. This fear is often associated with the presence of strangers or the departure of significant others known respectively as stranger wariness and separation anxiety which appear sometime between 6 and 15 months. And there is some indication that infants may experience jealousy as young as 6 months of age (Hart & Carrington, 2002).
During the second year of life, children begin to recognize themselves as they gain a sense of self as object. This is illustrated in the 15 month old child’s ability to recognize one’s own reflection in a mirror. (The classic mirror test or rouge test involves showing a toddler a mirror after having secretly rubbed red coloring on the child’s nose. Children who are younger than 15 months of age may try to wipe the color from the mirror. But a 15 month old child may wipe the color from his or her own nose.) Once a child has achieved self-awareness, the child is moving toward understanding social emotions such as guilt, shame or embarrassment as well as sympathy or empathy. These will require an understanding of the mental state of others that is acquired at around age 3 to 5 and will be explored in our next lesson (Berk, 2007).
Forming Attachments
The significance of early attachments: An attachment is desire for physical closeness with someone. The formation of attachments in infancy has been the subject of considerable research as attachments have been viewed as foundations for future relationships, as the basis for confidence and curiosity as toddlers, and as important influences on self-concept.
Measuring attachment styles: The classic model for studying styles of attachment involves having a caregiver and child come into a strange room filled with toys and observing the child’s reactions. A securely attached child will play with the toys and bring one to the caregiver to show and describe from time to time. The child is content and secure as he or she explores the situation. An insecurely-resistant child will cling to the caregiver and refuse to go and play. An insecure-avoidant attachment style is indicated by a child who is neither curious nor clingy; rather the child sits and waits until time to go.
Attachment styles vary in the amount of security and closeness felt in the relationship and they can change with new experience. The type of attachment fostered in parenting styles varies by culture as well. For example, German parents value independence and Japanese mothers are typically by their children’s sides. As a result, the rate of insecure-avoidant attachments is higher in Germany and insecure-resistant attachments are higher in Japan. These differences reflect cultural variation rather than true insecurity, however (van Ijzendoorn and Sagi, 1999). Keep in mind that methods for measuring attachment styles have been based on a model that reflects middle-class, U. S. values and interpretation. Newer methods for assessment attachment styles involve using a Q-sort technique in which a large number of behaviors are recorded on cards and the observer sorts the cards in a way that reflects the type of behavior that occurs within the situation.
As we explore styles of attachment below, consider how these are evidenced also in adult relationships.
Types of Attachments
Secure: A secure attachment is one in which the child feels confident that needs will be met in a timely and consistent way. In North America, this interaction may include emotional connection in addition to adequate care. However, even in cultures where mothers do not talk, cuddle, and play with their infants, secure attachments can develop (LeVine et. al., 1994). Secure attachments can form provided the child has consistent contact and care from one or more caregivers. Consistency of contacts may be jeopardized if the infant is cared for in a day care with a high turn-over of caregivers or if institutionalized and given little more than basic physical care. And while infants who, perhaps because of being in orphanages with inadequate care, have not had the opportunity to attach in infancy can form initial secure attachments several years later, they may have more emotional problems of depression, anger, or be overly friendly as they make adjustments (O’Connor et. als., 2003).
Insecure Resistant: This attachment style is marked by insecurity and a resistance to engaging in activities or play away from the caregiver. It is as if the child fears that the caregiver will abandon them and clings accordingly. (Keep in mind that clingy behavior can also just be part of a child natural disposition or temperament and does not necessarily reflect some kind of parental neglect.) The child may cry if separated from the caregiver and also cry upon their return. They seek constant reassurance that never seems to satisfy their doubt. This type of insecure attachment might be a result of not having needs met in a consistent or timely way. Consequently the infant is never sure that the world is a trustworthy place or that he or she can rely on others without some anxiety. A caregiver who is unavailable, perhaps because of marital tension, substance abuse, or preoccupation with work, may send a message to the infant he or she cannot rely on having needs met. A caregiver that attends to a child’s frustration can help teach them to be calm and to relax. But an infant who receives only sporadic attention when experiencing discomfort may not learn how to calm down.
Insecure-Avoidant: This too is an attachment style marked by insecurity. But this style is also characterized by a tendency to avoid contact with the caregiver and with others. This child may have learned that needs typically go unmet and learns that the caregiver does not provide care and cannot be relied upon for comfort, even sporadically. An insecure-avoidant child learns to be more independent and disengaged. Such a child might sit passively in a room filled with toys until it is time to go.
Disorganized: This represents the most insecure style of attachment and occurs when the child is given mixed, confused, and inappropriate responses from the caregiver. For example, a mother who suffers from schizophrenia may laugh when a child is hurting or cry when a child exhibits joy. The child does not learn how to interpret emotions or to connect with the unpredictable caregiver.
How common are the attachment styles among children in the United States? It is estimated that about 65 percent of children in the United States are securely attached. Twenty percent exhibit avoidant styles and 10 to 15 percent are resistant. Another 5 to 10 percent may be characterized as disorganized. How would this compare with adults in the United States? (We will look at this in our lesson on early adulthood.) | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/04%3A_Infancy/4.06%3A_Psychosocial_Development_and_Attachment.txt |
Perhaps you have spent time with a number of infants. How were they alike? How did they differ? Or compare yourself with your siblings or other children you have known well. You may have noticed that some seemed to be in a better mood than others and that some were more sensitive to noise or more easily distracted than others. These differences may be attributed to temperment. Temperament is an inborn quality noticeable soon after birth. According to Chess and Thomas (1996), children vary on 9 dimensions of temperament. These include activity level, regularity (or predictability), sensitivity thresholds, mood, persistence or distractibility, among others. The New York Longitudinal Study was a long term study of infants on these dimensions which began in the 1950s. Most children do not have their temperament clinically measured, but categories of temperament have been developed and are seen as useful in understanding and working with children. These categories include easy or flexible, slow to warm up or cautious, difficult or feisty, and undifferentiated (or those who can’t easily be categorized).
Think about how you might approach each type of child in order to improve your interactions with them. An easy or flexible child will not need much extra attention unless you want to find out whether they are having difficulties that have gone unmentioned. A slow to warm up child may need to be given advance warning if new people or situations are going to be introduced. A difficult or feisty child may need to be given extra time to burn off their energy. A caregiver’s ability to work well and accurately read the child will enjoy a goodness of fit meaning their styles match and communication and interaction can flow. Rather than believing that discipline alone will bring about improvements in children’s behavior, our knowledge of temperament may help a parent, teacher or other gain insight to work more effectively with a child.
Temperament doesn’t change dramatically as we grow up, but we may learn how to work around and manage our temperamental qualities. Temperament may be one of the things about us that stays the same throughout development.
4.08: Psychosocial Development
Erikson’s Stages for Infants and Toddlers
Trust vs. mistrust: Erikson maintained that the first year to year and a half of life involves the establishment of a sense of trust. Infants are dependent and must rely on others to meet their basic physical needs as well as their needs for stimulation and comfort. A caregiver who consistently meets these needs instills a sense of trust or the belief that the world is a trustworthy place. The caregiver should not worry about overly indulging a child’s need for comfort, contact or stimulation. This view is in sharp contrast with the Freudian view that a parent who overly indulges the infant by allowing them to suck too long or be picked up too frequently will be spoiled or become fixated at the oral stage of development.
Problems establishing trust: Consider the implications for establishing trust if a caregiver is unavailable or is upset and ill-prepared to care for a child. Or if a child is born prematurely, is unwanted, or has physical problems that make him or her less desirable to a parent. Unwanted pregnancies can be experienced by busy, upper-middle class professional couples as well as young, unmarried mothers, or couples in the midst of relational strains. Under these circumstances, we cannot assume that the parent is going to provide the child with a feeling of trust. However, keep in mind that children can also exhibit strong resiliency to harsh circumstances. Resiliency can be attributed to certain personality factors, such as an easy-going temperament and receiving support from others. So a positive and strong support group can help a parent and child build a strong foundation by offering assistance and positive attitudes toward the newborn and parent.
Autonomy vs. shame and doubt: As the child begins to walk and talk, an interest in independence or autonomy replaces a concern for trust. The toddler tests the limits of what can be touched, said, and explored. Erikson believed that toddlers should be allowed to explore their environment as freely as safety allows and in so doing will develop a sense of independence that will later grow to self-esteem, initiative, and overall confidence. If a caregiver is overly anxious about the toddler’s actions for fear that the child will get hurt or violate other’s expectation, the caregiver can give the child the message that he or she should be ashamed of their behavior and instill a sense of doubt in their own abilities. Parenting advice based on these ideas would be to keep your toddler safe, but let him or her learn by doing. A sense of pride seems to rely on doing rather than being told how capable one is as well (Berger, 2005).
Conclusion
We have explored the dramatic story of the first two years of life. Rapid physical growth, neurological development, language acquisition, the movement from hands on to mental learning, an expanding emotional repertoire, and the initial conceptions of self and others make this period of life very exciting. These abilities are shaped into more sophisticated mental processes, self-concepts, and social relationships during the years of early childhood. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/04%3A_Infancy/4.07%3A_Temperament.txt |
Lecture Transcript
Now we will look closely at the first two years of development known as infancy. Infants and toddlers, or children beginning to learn to walk, are the subject of this lesson.
First, let’s explore the dramatic physical growth that occurs in this time period. The average newborn weighs about 7.5 pounds. Most infants range between 6 and 9 pounds at birth. After a few days of moderate weight loss due to the expulsion of waste and getting used to feeding, the infant starts growing rapidly and usually doubles in weight by 4 months. The birth weight is tripled by 12 months so a 7 pound baby now weighs approximately 21 pounds. Most newborns are 19 to 21 inches in length or on average about 20 inches at birth. The typical two year old is 32 to 36 inches in height. There is dramatic change in the body proportions during the first two years. A newborn’s head is about 25 percent of its entire length. By adulthood, however, the head is proportionately smaller.
While we may notice changes on the outside of the body, incredible growth is taking place within the brain. The brain is 25 percent its adult weight at birth, but by age 2 it has grown to 75 percent of its adult weight. Much of this growth takes place in the dendrites or the branch-like extensions coming from the neuron. These are the point of entry for chemical messages that are picked up from the surrounding neurons through the synapse. This growth reaches a peak at age 2 and then connections that are not used are pruned away to increase the efficiency of the remaining connections. In this way, experience begins to shape our hard wiring.
Myelin is a fatty substance that coats and insulates the axon of neurons. It speeds up the rate of transmission of the neural impulse and improves functioning. Myelination, or this insulating process, is also occurring in infancy and continues at a less rapid pace into adolescence. Not all parts of the cortex mature at the same rate. The prefrontal cortex located behind the forehead is the last to mature. It is not fully developed for years to come. (We’ll look at how it goes through a second period of growth in adolescence.)
Motor development refers to movement. When we are born, we are equipped with a number of automatic responses to stimuli known as reflexes. These include a sucking reflex, the rooting reflex which involves an infant turning the head toward anything that touches the cheek, and a palmar grasp, strongly clasping the hand around anything touching the palm.
After a few days or weeks, reflexive actions begin to be replaced with voluntary movements or motor skills. These skills are not mastered in infancy, however. Motor skill development continues throughout childhood. Gross motor skills are large movements of the body that require large muscles such as those located in the back, legs, and arms.
Fine motor skills are smaller, more precise movements of the hand and fingers. These take longer to acquire as they involve being able to coordinate the hand and eye and being able to manipulate the hands to grab and move small objects.
The newborn’s senses are not equally developed at birth. Vision is the least developed sense at birth. Newborn vision would be considered ‘legally blind’ if found in an adult. Newborns can only focus on objects between 8 and 16 inches away. And they have trouble scanning objects and tracking moving objects visually. Practice and the development of neural connections and myelin will help. The ability to focus both eyes on an object, or use binocular vision, begins at around 14 weeks. Newborns see contrast but do not distinguish between similar hues until they grow a few months older. Hearing, however, is well developed at birth.
Breast milk is considered the ideal diet for newborns. The calories and nutrition provided are perfectly suited for infants. There are numerous other advantages of breastfeeding. These include providing immunity and decreasing the risk of infection in the newborn child. And breastfeeding is free. Most mothers are able to breastfeed, but should be avoided by mothers with HIV or untreated tuberculosis, mothers who are using illicit drugs, and those who are undergoing radiation or chemotherapy treatments. Wet nursing, or the use of wet-nurses (lactating women other than the mother) to feed infants has been a practice found throughout history. Does it exist today? Sometimes breast milk is recommended even if unavailable from the mother. In these cases, human breast milk is still recommended and is available for use in neonatal care units and other locations where breast milk is needed. Mothers can donate their breast milk for such use. Find out more at prolacta.com.
There are two major concerns of malnutrition found in developing countries. One is infantile marasmus which is overall starvation causes by a lack of caloric intake. Toddlers may suffer from a protein deficiency called kwashiorkor. In the United States, giving children too much milk as toddlers can spoil the appetite for other foods and lead to iron deficiencies seen in early childhood. This is referred to as milk-anemia.
Now we explore cognitive development by focusing on language acquisition and changes in the ability to think and reason. Piaget’s stage for infancy is sensorimotor intelligence. Remember that the infant uses senses and motor skills to explore the world.
There are six stages of sensorimotor intelligence.
During these first two sub stages, the infant if focused primarily on their own body. The first stage is found in the first month of life. This is a time when reflexive action is used to react to the world. The newborn has few mental concepts or schemes outside of sucking, chewing, rooting and other automatic movements. If any object is placed near the mouth, the infant may turn and begin to suck on it. The infant may cry or grimace if that object is sour or otherwise brings discomfort.
Stage two lasts through the fourth month of development. Now the infant is making first adaptations to the environment. A sour object may now be recognized as something to avoid rather than to suck on. A new schema is built through this process of accommodation.
Stage Three, repeating actions, lasts from the 4th month through the 8th month of development. Now the infant begins to repeat actions to see what effect this might bring. Shaking a rattle, repeating a syllable, or rocking back and forth are examples. The child is increasingly interacting with others in this third and fourth stage.
Stage four lasts from 8 to 12 months and is a time of new adaptations and anticipation. The baby begins to look forward to upcoming events such as taking a walk or a bath. This signals being able to consider the future. Piaget suggested that object permanence, or the knowledge that an object continues to exist even if it cannot be seen, is acquired at this age. Prior to about 8 months of age, the baby who is shown a toy and then blocking the toy from view will rapidly lose interest. Piaget concluded that the baby thinks it no longer exists. After this age, the baby will remove the barrier and seek the toy that is out of view. But infants at much younger ages respond to events that do not seem to be possible. An infant shown a fuzzy red square moving behind a screen and emerging as a yellow circle will look at this event for a long time recognizing that this should not have occurred. A red square that moves behind a screen should still be the same when it reappears.
Stage Five is the stage of experimentation. In stages five and six, the child is busy interacting with the world and making discoveries. Most of these discoveries come in the form of trial and error learning. The child learns about gravity by letting objects drop. Or the child learns that pulling on the dog’s ear brings about a cry. This trial and error learning can be very messy as pots and pans and household items are pulled off the shelves and contents are spread all around!
In stage six, the child begins to make the transition to thinking in order to solve problems. This lasts from 18-24 months. The child now uses mental combinations rather than solely relying on trial and error to solve problems. This ability requires the child to see something and then imitate it at some later point. This is called deferred imitation. Here is an example. A child wants to get out of a room but cannot grasp the door knob. After trying to open the door, the child decides to use a technique they remember having witnessed before and knocks on the door. Aha! This brings someone to open the door.
Let’s look at how communication develops in the first two years of life. Can newborns communicate? Of course. But they use cries, facial expressions, and body posture to do so. At 2 to 3 months, the baby begins making intentional vocalizations such as cooing or squealing. They laugh and they also learn the pace of speech by taking turns in communication. Deaf babies also vocalize at this age.
Gesturing is an easy way for babies to communicate. At 5 months, the baby points to objects, shows frustration, and delight by waving the arms. Gesturing is so natural to infants that learning sign language has been seen as an effective way to enhance communication at this age.
At around 6 months, the infant begins to babble. Babbling is typically a vowel consonant combination repeated over and over like “nananana” or “gagagaga”. These are the precursors to language and gradually only those sounds that are used will be retained.
Deaf babies also babble at this age with gestures that partially indicate a concept or thought. Our understanding of language seems to come before our ability to articulate. Understanding comes before speaking. Have you studied another language? Chances are you were able to understand before you could form communicative sentences in that language.
Our first spoken words seem to emerge at around 12 months of age. The baby may use holophrasic speech which is a single word to convey an entire thought. “Ju” may mean “I’d like some more juice.” or “Where’s my milk?” The meaning has to be interpreted by the listener and this can be very difficult if you’ve not been around that particular baby. Once a label is learned, the baby may underextend or overextend the use of that label. For example, “Mama” may only refer to the child’s mother or “doggie” may be used to describe all of the four legged animals in the zoo. These children typically have a vocabulary of about 50 words. English speaking children tend to have many nouns or labels for objects. Deaf babies’ vocalizations may disappear by age 2.
At 18 months there is a vocabulary growth spurt. Toddlers will use more and more two word sentences that make them easier to understand. Eventually they use more 3 to 5 word sentences in a kind of speech referred to as “telegraphic speech” because it reads much like telegraph-unnecessary words are eliminated. Many people are unfamiliar with telegraphs today, but texting is similar so I call this “text message” speech. Rather than texting, “Hi there.” How are you? What’s been going on with you lately?” We text, “Sup!” You get the idea.
Have you ever witnessed a person talking with a baby? Their facial expressions and intonation probably changed so that they began a kind of sing song talk known as child-directed speech. It goes like this. “Dooooo yooooou like moooommmy’s paretteee beeeeeeds?”
Why do people do this? It gets attention. Babies respond to this type of speech in which vowel and consonant sounds are exaggerated and pitch goes up. You may have responded too!
There are several theories of language development. The famous linguist, Noam Chomsky, suggests that our ability to learn language is inborn. We have a neurological construct in our brains known as a language acquisition device. Learning language is simply a matter of being exposed to language. Skinner suggested that language is taught through reinforcement. A child is given praise and hugs for uttering a word and this increases the likelihood that this will be repeated.
Our final angle for understanding infancy is psychosocial development. Let’s examine emotions and relationships in the first two years of life.
Newborns demonstrate a number of emotional states. One of the first is attraction and withdrawal. They respond in order to get closer to people and situations or to move away. Social smiling is very engaging and begins at about 2 months of age. The infant returns a smile and a connection seems to have been made. (Infants can imitate facial expressions much earlier, but social smiling is a reaction to someone else.) Babies laugh at 3 to 5 months of age and demonstrate fear, anger, and sadness a few months later.
An interesting study in which a baby’s reactions are noted when a mother pays attention to a doll and ignores the baby suggests that babies can feel jealousy as early as 6 months of age. Once infants become more cognizant of those around, stranger wariness and separation anxiety can emerge. Stranger wariness is the discomfort a baby feels when being held or surrounded by strangers. This new look is sometimes hard for them to assimilate. Separation anxiety can be expressed through cries and protests when a caregiver leaves. Not all babies experience these emotions to the same degree. But they are usually interpreted as a sign that an attachment has been formed between the baby and certain caregivers. These usually subside after a few weeks for months.
Self-awareness or self-recognition is seen at around 15 months of age. This is the understanding that the image in the mirror is you. The classic test of self-awareness involves putting a dot of rouge on a baby’s nose and seeing how they react when looking in the mirror. A baby who tries to grab the nose in the mirror does not recognize the image as self. But the baby who starts to rub the dot off of their own nose has self-awareness or recognition. (Many animals do not achieve self-awareness. I have a dog that gets very upset with his image in the mirror and starts to bark. I once had a parakeet that was in love with his own image in the mirror!)
A sense of self leads to the development of social emotions such as guilt or shame and embarrassment. These emotions require the ability to see how others might view one’s own actions.
An attachment is the desire to be close to someone else. Early attachments between infants and caregivers have been the subject of a good deal of research. The assumption has been that our early relationships set the stage for subsequent relationships. These relationships can influence later relationships, but they do not dictate the future.
The most common type of attachment is a secure attachment. This is thought to be developed if the child receives care and affection early in life. This leads to a sense of trust and curiosity in early childhood. The child feels confident and explores the world feeling safe and secure. Again, the presence of separation anxiety may signal that an attachment has formed.
One type of insecure attachment style is insecure-resistant. This style may result from inconsistent care which sends the message that needs can often go unmet. The child is clingy and can never receive enough attention to feel okay. The child may fear being alone and worry that the caregiver will leave even when in their presence.
The insecure-avoidant style of attachment is one in which the child does not seek comfort or care from others. This child is neither curious nor clingy. Rather, such a child may seem to be precociously independent. The child is uncomfortable with closeness. This is the least common style of attachment and was described after viewing the interactions between mothers with schizophrenia and their children. The disorganized style of attachment doesn’t seem to make sense in a given situation. The mother may have laughed when the child was upset or grown angry when the child was happy. The child may cry or be combative with others during play. Or they may freeze or retreat in social situations. The behavior is unpredictable and emotions are inappropriate.
Attachment styles show cultural variation. This suggests that cultural expectations find their way in parenting practices and in attachment styles.
Children aren’t born with personalities, but they do demonstrate differences in temperament soon after birth. Temperament refers to inborn behavioral tendencies. These are fairly consistent ways of relating to other people and situations. These aren’t shaped by parenting. But they may be tendencies that are interpreted by others and later give rise to personality traits we view in ourselves. For example, a baby who is very predictable may be labeled as a “good” baby and this may view may later be internalized into the self-concept.
The New York Longitudinal Study began in the 1950s and was an effort to monitor differences in children and keep track of these differences through the years. Qualities of temperament include: Activity. How active is the baby? Rhythmicity. Does the baby follow a routine of regularity? Do they want to eat and sleep at the same times each day? Approach/Withdrawal: How does the baby respond to others? Adaptability: Can the baby easily adjust when situations change? Intensity. How intensely does the child laugh or cry or react to situations? Mood. What is the child’s mood? Is it consistent or does it fluctuate? Persistence and attention span. Does the baby tend to stay on task and focus? Distractibility. Is it easy to distract the child from an activity? Sensory threshold. Does the baby react strongly to changes in food texture, light, or sound?
The dimensions of temperament have been used to derive temperament types. The easy or flexible child is adaptable and shows a consistent, pleasant mood. The difficult, active, or feisty child reacts intensely to changes in routine or has wide variation in mood.
The slow to warm up or cautious child withdraws from others and may dislike disruptions in routine. Many children are difficult to categorize. But knowing a child’s temperament may be useful in dealing effectively with that child. Parenting styles that match temperament work well and are known as a goodness of fit.
Erikson’s first psychosocial stage of development is trust versus mistrust. The dependent infant has to rely upon others for survival and stimulation. If the baby is given consistent, loving care, a sense of trust develops. If not, the child may feel insecure and worry that needs will go unmet. What kinds of situations might undermine the establishment of a sense of trust? Parents who are unaffectionate or resentful about the baby or who are preoccupied with discord in the relationship, who are unavailable or tense may convey this in their interaction with the child. An early stressful environment can have an impact on neurological development making the child more sensitive to stress in the future.
Establishing trust requires adequate care, sufficient oral stimulation through sucking, physical contact, and an overall message of care.
In the second year of life, children are becoming able to walk and talk and explore. Erikson suggests that their primary concern is that of independence, autonomy, or self-rule. They need to be allowed to be independent within safe limits. Performing a task and seeing the end result can give a child a sense of pride in their accomplishments. This self-evaluation is more effective than having others say “I’m so proud of you.” In our next lesson, we’ll focus on early childhood.
4.10: Infancy
Lifespan Psychology Module 4 slide on infancy from Lumen Learning | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/04%3A_Infancy/4.09%3A_Infancy.txt |
• 5.1: Introduction to Early Childhood
Early childhood is a time of pretending, blending fact and fiction, and learning to think of the world using language. As young children move away from needing to touch, feel, and hear about the world toward learning some basic principles about how the world works, they hold some pretty interesting initial ideas. Concepts such as time, size and distance are not easy to grasp at this young age. Understanding concepts are all tasks that are part of cognitive development in the preschool years.
• 5.2: Physical Development
Children between the ages of 2 and 6 years tend to grow about 3 inches in height each year and gain about 4 to 5 pounds in weight each year. This growth rate is slower than that of infancy and is accompanied by a reduced appetite between the ages of 2 and 6. By age 6, the brain is at 95 percent its adult weight. Sexuality begins in childhood as a response to physical states and sensation and cannot be interpreted as similar to that of adults in any way.
• 5.3: Cognitive Development
Piaget’s stage that coincides with early childhood is the preoperational stage. The word operational means logical, so children were thought to be illogical. However, they are learning to use language or to think of the world symbolically. The theory of mind is the understanding that the mind can be tricked or that the mind is not always accurate. Before about 4 years of age, a child does not recognize that the mind can hold ideas that are not accurate.
• 5.4: Psychosocial Development
Early childhood is a time of forming an initial sense of self. A self-concept or idea of who we are, what we are capable of doing, and how we think and feel is a social process that involves taking into consideration how others view us. One of the ways to gain a clearer sense of self is to exaggerate those qualities that are to be incorporated into the self. Another important dimension of the self is the sense of self as male or female.
• 5.5: Family Life
Relationships between parents and children continue to play a significant role in children’s development during early childhood. Baumrind offers a model of parenting that includes three styles: authoritarian, permissive parenting, and authoritative parenting. Lemasters and Defrain offer another model of parenting which suggest that parenting styles are often designed to meet the psychological needs of the parent rather than the developmental needs of the child.
• 5.6: Childhood Stress and Development
Normal, everyday stress can provide an opportunity for young children to build coping skills and poses little risk to development. Even more long-lasting stressful events such as changing schools or losing a loved one can be managed fairly well. But children who experience toxic stress or who live in extremely stressful situations of abuse over long periods of time can suffer long-lasting effects. The effects of stress can be minimized if the child has the support of caring adults.
• 5.7: Labeling and Children
• 5.8: Childhood
• 5.9: Early Childhood
• 5.10: Early Childhood
05: Early Childhood
Skills to Develop
• Summarize overall physical growth during early childhood.
• Describe growth of structures in the brain during early childhood.
• Identify examples of gross and fine motor skill development in early childhood.
• Identify nutritional concerns for children in early childhood.
• Examine nutritional content in popular foods consumed by children in early childhood.
• Describe sexual development in early childhood.
• Define preoperational intelligence.
• Illustrate animism, egocentrism, and centration using children’s games or media.
• Describe language development in early childhood.
• Illustrate scaffolding.
• Explain private speech.
• Explain theory of mind.
• Explain Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development for toddlers and children in early childhood.
• Contrast models of parenting styles.
• Examine concerns about child care.
• Explain theories of self from Cooley and Mead.
• Summarize theories of gender role development.
• Examine concerns about childhood stress and development.
REFERENCES
Ariès, P. (1962). Centuries of childhood; a social history of family life. New York: Knopf.
Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns of parental authority. Developmental Psychology Monograph, 4(1), part 2.
Berk, L. E. (2007). Development through the life span (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Carroll, J. L. (2007). Sexuality now: Embracing diversity (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson.
Cohen, P. N., & Bianchi, S. M. (1999). Marriage, children, and women’s employment: What do we know? Monthly Labor Review, 22-31.
Cooley, C. H. (1964). Human nature and the social order. New York: Schocken Books.
Employment Characteristics of Families Summary. (2010). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved May 05, 2011, from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm
Gecas, V., & Self, M. (1991). Families and adolescents. In A. Booth (Ed.), Contemporary families: Looking forward, looking back (National Council on Family Relations). Minneapolis.
Imai, M., Li, L., Haryu, E., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Golinkoff, R. M., & Shigematsu, J. (2008). Novel noun and verb learning in Chinese, English, and Japanese children: Universality and language-specificity in novel noun and verb learning. Child Development, 79, 979-1000.
Kimmel, M. S. (2008). The gendered society (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kohn, M. L. (1977). Class and conformity. (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
LeMasters, E. E., & DeFrain, J. D. (1989). Parents in contemporary America: a sympathetic view. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Maccoby, E., & Jacklin, C. (1987). Gender segregation in childhood. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 20, 239-287.
Martinson, F. M. (1981). Eroticism in infancy and childhood. In L. L. Constantine & F. M. Martinson (Eds.), Children and sex: New findings, new perspectives. (pp. 23-35). Boston: Little, Brown.
Mead, G. H., & Morris, C. W. (1967). Mind, self, and society; from the standpoint of a social behaviorist. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Middlebrooks, J. S., & Audage, N. C. (2008). The effects of childhood stress on health across the lifespan. (United States, Center for Disease Control, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control). Atlanta, GA.
Nance-Nash, S. (2009, March 5). President’s Fund Repays Liberia’s Market Women | Womens eNews. Women’s ENews. Retrieved May 05, 2011, from http://womensenews.org/story/busines...s-market-women
Okami, P., Olmstead, R., & Abramson, P. R. (1997). Sexual experiences in early childhood: 18-year longitudinal data from UCLA Family Lifestyles Project. Journal of Sex Research, 34(4), 339-347.
Rice, F. P. (1997). Human development: A life-span approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Sadker, M., & Sadker, D. M. (1994). Failing at fairness: How America’s schools cheat girls. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons.
Sandberg, J. F., & Hofferth, S. L. (2001). Changes in children’s time with parents: United States, 1981-1997. Demography, 38, 423-436.
Schwartz, I. M. (1999). Sexual activity prior to coitus initiation: A comparison between males and females. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 28(1), 63-69.
Vygotskiĭ, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
WHO | Gender and genetics: Sex selection and the law. (2010). Retrieved May 05, 2011, from http://www.who.int/genomics/gender/en/index4.html | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/05%3A_Early_Childhood/5.01%3A_Introduction_to_Early_Childhood.txt |
Growth in Early Childhood
Children between the ages of 2 and 6 years tend to grow about 3 inches in height each year and gain about 4 to 5 pounds in weight each year. The average 6 year old weighs about 46 pounds and is about 46 inches in height. The 3 year old is very similar to a toddler with a large head, large stomach, short arms and legs. But by the time the child reaches age 6, the torso has lengthened and body proportions have become more like those of adults.
This growth rate is slower than that of infancy and is accompanied by a reduced appetite between the ages of 2 and 6. This change can sometimes be surprising to parents and lead to the development of poor eating habits.
Nutritional Concerns
Caregivers who have established a feeding routine with their child can find this reduction in appetite a bit frustrating and become concerned that the child is going to starve. However, by providing adequate, sound nutrition, and limiting sugary snacks and drinks, the caregiver can be assured that 1) the child will not starve; and 2) the child will receive adequate nutrition. Preschoolers can experience iron deficiencies if not given well-balanced nutrition and if given too much milk. Calcium interferes with the absorption of iron in the diet as well.
Caregivers need to keep in mind that they are setting up taste preferences at this age. Young children who grow accustomed to high fat, very sweet and salty flavors may have trouble eating foods that have more subtle flavors such as fruits and vegetables. Consider the following advice about establishing eating patterns for years to come (Rice, F.P., 1997). Notice that keeping mealtime pleasant, providing sound nutrition and not engaging in power struggles over food are the main goals:
Tips for Establishing Healthy Eating Patterns
1. Don’t try to force your child to eat or fight over food. Of course, it is impossible to force someone to eat. But the real advice here is to avoid turning food into some kind of ammunition during a fight. Do not teach your child to eat to or refuse to eat in order to gain favor or express anger toward someone else.
2. Recognize that appetite varies. Children may eat well at one meal and have no appetite at another. Rather than seeing this as a problem, it may help to realize that appetites do vary. Continue to provide good nutrition, but do not worry excessively if the child does not eat.
3. Keep it pleasant. This tip is designed to help caregivers create a positive atmosphere during mealtime. Mealtimes should not be the time for arguments or expressing tensions. You do not want the child to have painful memories of mealtimes together or have nervous stomachs and problems eating and digesting food due to stress.
4. No short order chefs. While it is fine to prepare foods that children enjoy, preparing a different meal for each child or family member sets up an unrealistic expectation from others. Children probably do best when they are hungry and a meal is ready. Limiting snacks rather than allowing children to “graze” continuously can help create an appetite for whatever is being served.
5. Limit choices. If you give your preschool aged child choices, make sure that you give them one or two specific choices rather than asking “What would you like for lunch?” If given an open choice, children may change their minds or choose whatever their sibling does not choose!
6. Serve balanced meals. This tip encourages caregivers to serve balanced meals. A box of macaroni and cheese is not a balanced meal. Meals prepared at home tend to have better nutritional value than fast food or frozen dinners. Prepared foods tend to be higher in fat and sugar content as these ingredients enhance taste and profit margin because fresh food is often more costly and less profitable. However, preparing fresh food at home is not costly. It does, however, require more activity. Preparing meals and including the children in kitchen chores can provide a fun and memorable experience.
7. Don’t bribe. Bribing a child to eat vegetable by promising desert is not a good idea. For one reason, the child will likely find a way to get the desert without eating the vegetables (by whining or fidgeting, perhaps, until the caregiver gives in), and for another reason, because it teaches the child that some foods are better than others. Children tend to naturally enjoy a variety of foods until they are taught that some are considered less desirable than others. A child, for example, may learn the broccoli they have enjoyed is seen as yucky by others unless it’s smothered in cheese sauce!
To what extent do these tips address cultural practices? How might these tips vary by culture?
Brain Maturation
Brain weight: If you recall, the brain is about 75 percent its adult weight by two years of age. By age 6, it is at 95 percent its adult weight. Myelination and the development of dendrites continues to occur in the cortex and as it does, we see a corresponding change in what the child is capable of doing. Greater development in the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain behind the forehead that helps us to think, strategizes, and controls emotion, makes it increasingly possible to control emotional outbursts and to understand how to play games. Consider 4 or 5 year old children and how they might approach a game of soccer. Chances are every move would be a response to the commands of a coach standing nearby calling out, “Run this way! Now, stop. Look at the ball. Kick the ball!” And when the child is not being told what to do, he or she is likely to be looking at the clover on the ground or a dog on the other side of the fence! Understanding the game, thinking ahead, and coordinating movement improve with practice and myelination. Not being too upset over a loss, hopefully, does as well.
Visual Pathways
Have you ever examined the drawings of young children? If you look closely, you can almost see the development of visual pathways reflected in the way these images change as pathways become more mature. Early scribbles and dots illustrate the use of simple motor skills. No real connection is made between an image being visualized and what is created on paper.
At age 3, the child begins to draw wispy creatures with heads and not much other detail. Gradually pictures begin to have more detail and incorporate more parts of the body. Arm buds become arms and faces take on noses, lips and eventually eyelashes. Look for drawings that you or your child has created to see this fascinating trend. Here are some examples of pictures drawn by my daughters from ages 2 to 7 years.
Growth in the hemispheres and corpus callosum: Between ages 3 and 6, the left hemisphere of the brain grows dramatically. This side of the brain or hemisphere is typically involved in language skills. The right hemisphere continues to grow throughout early childhood and is involved in tasks that require spatial skills such as recognizing shapes and patterns. The corpus callosum which connects the two hemispheres of the brain undergoes a growth spurt between ages 3 and 6 as well and results in improved coordination between right and left hemisphere tasks. (I once saw a 5 year old hopping on one foot, rubbing his stomach and patting his head all at the same time. I asked him what he was doing and he replied, “My teacher said this would help my corpus callosum!” Apparently, his kindergarten teacher had explained the process!)
Motor Skill Development: Early childhood is a time when children are especially attracted to motion and song. Days are filled with moving, jumping, running, swinging and clapping and every place becomes a playground. Even the booth at a restaurant affords the opportunity to slide around in the seat or disappear underneath and imagine being a sea creature in a cave! Of course, this can be frustrating to a caregiver, but it’s the business of early childhood. Children continue to improve their gross motor skills as they run and jump. And frequently ask their caregivers to “look at me” while they hop or roll down a hill. Children’s songs are often accompanied by arm and leg movements or cues to turn around or move from left to right. Fine motor skills are also being refined in activities such as pouring water into a container, drawing, coloring, and using scissors. Some children’s songs promote fine motor skills as well (have you ever heard of the song “itsy, bitsy, spider”?). Mastering the fine art of cutting one’s own fingernails or tying shoes will take a lot of practice and maturation. Motor skills continue to develop in middle childhood-but for preschoolers, play that deliberately involves these skills is emphasized.
Go ahead. Sing along and practice your fine motor skills.
Sexual Development in Early Childhood
Historically, children have been thought of as innocent or incapable of sexual arousal (Aries, 1962). Yet, the physical dimension of sexual arousal is present from birth. But to associate the elements of seduction, power, love, or lust that is part of the adult meanings of sexuality would be inappropriate. Sexuality begins in childhood as a response to physical states and sensation and cannot be interpreted as similar to that of adults in any way (Carroll, 2007).
Infancy: Boys and girls are capable of erections and vaginal lubrication even before birth (Martinson, 1981). Arousal can signal overall physical contentment and stimulation that accompanies feeding or warmth. And infants begin to explore their bodies and touch their genitals as soon as they have the sufficient motor skills. This stimulation is for comfort or to relieve tension rather than to reach orgasm (Carroll, 2007).
Early Childhood: Self-stimulation is common in early childhood for both boys and girls. Curiosity about the body and about others’ bodies is a natural part of early childhood as well. Consider this example. A mother is asked by her young daughter: “So it’s okay to see a boy’s privates as long as it’s the boy’s mother or a doctor?” The mother hesitates a bit and then responds, “Yes. I think that’s alright.” “Hmmm,” the girl begins, “When I grow up, I want to be a doctor!” Hopefully, this subject is approached in a way that teaches children to be safe and know what is appropriate without frightening them or causing shame.
As children grow, they are more likely to show their genitals to siblings or peers, and to take off their clothes and touch each other (Okami et al., 1997). Masturbation is common for both boys and girls. Boys are often shown by other boys how to masturbate. But girls tend to find out accidentally. And boys masturbate more often and touch themselves more openly than do girls (Schwartz, 1999).
Hopefully, parents respond to this without undue alarm and without making the child feel guilty about their bodies. Instead, messages about what is going on and the appropriate time and place for such activities help the child learn what is appropriate. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/05%3A_Early_Childhood/5.02%3A_Physical_Development.txt |
Classification Errors: Preoperational children have difficulty understanding that an object can be classified in more than one way. For example, if shown three white buttons and four black buttons and asked whether there are more black buttons or buttons, the child is likely to respond that there are more black buttons. As the child’s vocabulary improves and more schemes are developed, the ability to classify objects improves.
Conservation of Liquid. Does pouring liquid in a tall, narrow container make it have more?
Conservation Errors: Conservation refers to the ability to recognize that moving or rearranging matter does not change the quantity. Imagine a 2 year old and a 4 year old eating lunch. The 4 year old has a whole peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He notices, however, that his younger sister’s sandwich is cut in half and protests, “She has more!” Watch the following examples of conversation errors of quantity and volume:
Theory of Mind
Imagine showing a child of three a bandaid box and asking the child what is in the box. Chances are, the child will reply, “bandaids.” Now imagine that you open the box and pour out crayons. If you ask the child what they thought was in the box before it was opened, they may respond, “crayons”. If you ask what a friend would have thought was in the box, the response would still be “crayons”. Why? Before about 4 years of age, a child does not recognize that the mind can hold ideas that are not accurate. So this 3 year old changes his or her response once shown that the box contains crayons. The theory of mind is the understanding that the mind can be tricked or that the mind is not always accurate. At around age 4, the child would reply, “Crayons” and understand that thoughts and realities do not always match.
This awareness of the existence of mind is part of social intelligence or the ability to recognize that others can think differently about situations. It helps us to be self-conscious or aware that others can think of us in different ways and it helps us to be able to be understanding or empathic toward others. This mind reading ability helps us to anticipate and predict the actions of others (even though these predictions are sometimes inaccurate).
The awareness of the mental states of others is important for communication and social skills. A child who demonstrates this skill is able to anticipate the needs of others. This video describes a research in which theory of mind is linked to popularity.
Language Development
Vocabulary growth: A child’s vocabulary expands between the ages of 2 to 6 from about 200 words to over 10,000 words through a process called fast-mapping. Words are easily learned by making connections between new words and concepts already known. The parts of speech that are learned depend on the language and what is emphasized. Children speaking verb-friendly languages such as Chinese and Japanese as well as those speaking English tend to learn nouns more readily. But those learning less verb-friendly languages such as English seem to need assistance in grammar to master the use of verbs (Imai, et als, 2008). Children are also very creative in creating their own words to use as labels such as a “take-care-of” when referring to John, the character on the cartoon, Garfield, who takes care of the cat.
Literal meanings: Children can repeat words and phrases after having heard them only once or twice. But they do not always understand the meaning of the words or phrases. This is especially true of expressions or figures of speech which are taken literally. For example, two preschool aged girls began to laugh loudly while listening to a tape-recording of Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” when the narrator reports, “Prince Phillip lost his head!” They image his head popping off and rolling down the hill as he runs and searches for it. Or a classroom full of preschoolers hears the teacher say, “Wow! That was a piece of cake!” The children began asking “Cake? Where is my cake? I want cake!”
Overregularization: Children learn rules of grammar as they learn language but may apply these rules inappropriately at first. For instance, a child learns to ad “ed” to the end of a word to indicate past tense. Then form a sentence such as “I goed there. I doed that.” This is typical at ages 2 and 3. They will soon learn new words such as went and did to be used in those situations.
The Impact of Training: Remember Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development? Children can be assisted in learning language by others who listen attentively, model more accurate pronunciations and encourage elaboration. The child exclaims, “I’m goed there!” and the adult responds, “You went there? Say, ‘I went there.’ Where did you go?” Children may be ripe for language as Chomsky suggests, but active participation in helping them learn is important for language development as well. The process of scaffolding is one in which the guide provides needed assistance to the child as a new skill is learned.
Private Speech: Do you ever talk to yourself? Why? Chances are, this occurs when you are struggling with a problem, trying to remember something, or feel very emotional about a situation. Children talk to themselves too. Piaget interpreted this as egocentric speech or a practice engaged in because of a child’s inability to seeing things from others points of views. Vygotsky, however, believed that children talk to themselves in order to solve problems or clarify thoughts. As children learn to think in words, they do so aloud before eventually closing their lips and engaging in private speech or inner speech. Thinking out loud eventually becomes thought accompanied by internal speech and talking to oneself becomes a practice only engaged in when we are trying to learn something or remember something, etc. This inner speech is not as elaborate as the speech we use when communicating with others (Vygotsky, 1962). | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/05%3A_Early_Childhood/5.03%3A_Cognitive_Development.txt |
A Look At Self-Concept, Gender Identity, And Family Life
Self-Concept
Early childhood is a time of forming an initial sense of self. A self-concept or idea of who we are, what we are capable of doing, and how we think and feel is a social process that involves taking into consideration how others view us. It might be said, then, that in order to develop a sense of self, you must have interaction with others. Interactionist theorists, Cooley and Mead offer two interesting explanations of how a sense of self develops.
Interactionism and Views of Self
Cooley: Charles Horton Cooley (1964) suggests that our self concept comes from looking at how others respond to us. This process, known as the looking-glass self involves looking at how others seem to view us and interpreting this as we make judgments about whether we are good or bad, strong or weak, beautiful or ugly, and so on. Of course, we do not always interpret their responses accurately so our self-concept is not simply a mirror reflection of the views of others. After forming an initial self-concept, we may use it as a mental filter screening out those responses that do not seem to fit our ideas of who we are. So compliments may be negated, for example. Think of times in your life when you feel self-conscious. The process of the looking-glass self is pronounced when we are preschoolers, or perhaps when we are in a new school or job or are taking on a new role in our personal lives and are trying to gauge our own performances. When we feel more sure of who we are we focus less on how we appear to others.
Mead: Herbert Mead (1967) offers an explanation of how we develop a social sense of self by being able to see ourselves through the eyes of others. There are two parts of the self: the “I” which is the part of the self that is spontaneous, creative, innate, and is not concerned with how others view us and the “me” or the social definition of who we are.
When we are born, we are all “I” and act without concern about how others view us. But the socialized self begins when we are able to consider how one important person views us. This initial stage is called “taking the role of the significant other”. For example, a child may pull a cat’s tail and be told by his mother, “No! Don’t do that, that’s bad” while receiving a slight slap on the hand. Later, the child may mimic the same behavior toward the self and say aloud, “No, that’s bad” while patting his own hand. What has happened? The child is able to see himself through the eyes of the mother. As the child grows and is exposed to many situations and rules of culture, he begins to view the self in the eyes of many others through these cultural norms or rules. This is referred to as “taking the role of the generalized other” and results in a sense of self with many dimensions. The child comes to have a sense of self as student, as friend, as son, and so on.
Exaggerated Sense of Self
One of the ways to gain a clearer sense of self is to exaggerate those qualities that are to be incorporated into the self. Preschoolers often like to exaggerate their own qualities or to seek validation as the biggest or smartest or child who can jump the highest. I wonder if messages given in children’s books or television shows that everyone is special are really meaningful to children who want to separate themselves from others on such qualities. This exaggeration tends to be replaced by a more realistic sense of self in middle childhood.
Erikson: Initiative vs. Guilt
The trust and autonomy of previous stages develop into a desire to take initiative or to think of ideas and initiative action. Children may want to build a fort with the cushions from the living room couch or open a lemonade stand in the driveway or make a zoo with their stuffed animals and issue tickets to those who want to come. Or they may just want to get themselves ready for bed without any assistance. To reinforce taking initiative, caregivers should offer praise for the child’s efforts and avoid being critical of messes or mistakes. Soggy washrags and toothpaste left in the sink pales in comparison to the smiling face of a five year old that emerges from the bathroom with clean teeth and pajamas!
Gender Identity, Gender Constancy and Gender Roles
Another important dimension of the self is the sense of self as male or female. Preschool aged children become increasingly interested in finding out the differences between boys and girls both physically and in terms of what activities are acceptable for each. While 2 year olds can identify some differences and learn whether they are boys or girls, preschoolers become more interested in what it means to be male or female. This self-identification or gender identity is followed sometime later with gender constancy or the knowledge that gender does not change. Gender roles or the rights and expectations that are associated with being male or female are learned throughout childhood and into adulthood.
Freud and the phallic stage: Freud believed that masculinity and femininity were learned during the phallic stage or psychosexual development. During the phallic stage, the child develops an attraction to the opposite sexed parent but after recognizing that that parent is unavailable, learns to model their own behavior after the same sexed parent. The child develops his or her own sense of masculinity or femininity from this resolution. And, according to Freud, a person who does not exhibit gender appropriate behavior, such as a woman who competes with men for jobs or a man who lacks self-assurance and dominance, has not successfully completed this stage of development. Consequently, such a person continues to struggle with his or her own gender identity.
Chodorow and mothering: Chodorow, a neoFreudian, believed that mothering promotes gender stereotypic behavior. Mothers push their sons away too soon and direct their attention toward problem-solving and independence. As a result, sons grow up confident in their own abilities but uncomfortable with intimacy. Girls are kept dependent too long and are given unnecessary and even unwelcome assistance from their mothers. Girls learn to underestimate their abilities and lack assertiveness, but feel comfortable with intimacy.
Both of these models assume that early childhood experiences result in lifelong gender self-concepts. However, gender socialization is a process that continues throughout life. Children, teens, and adults refine and can modify their sense of self based on gender.
Learning through reinforcement and modeling: Learning theorists suggest that gender role socialization is a result of the ways in which parents, teachers, friends, schools, religious institutions, media and others send messages about what is acceptable or desirable behavior as males or females. This socialization begins early-in fact, it may even begin the moment a parent learns that a child is on the way. Knowing the sex of the child can conjure up images of the child’s behavior, appearance, and potential on the part of a parent. And this stereotyping continues to guide perception through life. Consider parents of newborns, shown a 7 pound, 20 inch baby, wrapped in blue (a color designating males) describe the child as tough, strong, and angry when crying. Shown the same infant in pink (a color used in the United States for baby girls), these parents are likely to describe the baby as pretty, delicate, and frustrated when crying. (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1987). Female infants are held more, talked to more frequently and given direct eye contact, while male infants play is often mediated through a toy or activity.
Sons are given tasks that take them outside the house and that have to be performed only on occasion while girls are more likely to be given chores inside the home such as cleaning or cooking that is performed daily. Sons are encouraged to think for themselves when they encounter problems and daughters are more likely to be given assistance even when they are working on an answer. This impatience is reflected in teachers waiting less time when asking a female student for an answer than when asking for a reply from a male student (Sadker and Sadker, 1994). Girls are given the message from teachers that they must try harder and endure in order to succeed while boys successes are attributed to their intelligence. Of course, the stereotypes of advisors can also influence which kinds of courses or vocational choices girls and boys are encouraged to make.
Friends discuss what is acceptable for boys and girls and popularity may be based on modeling what is considered ideal behavior or looks for the sexes. Girls tend to tell one another secrets to validate others as best friends while boys compete for position by emphasizing their knowledge, strength or accomplishments. This focus on accomplishments can even give rise to exaggerating accomplishments in boys, but girls are discouraged from showing off and may learn to minimize their accomplishments as a result.
Gender messages abound in our environment. But does this mean that each of us receives and interprets these messages in the same way? Probably not. In addition to being recipients of these cultural expectations, we are individuals who also modify these roles (Kimmel, 2008).
How much does gender matter? In the United States, gender differences are found in school experiences (even into college and professional school, girls are less vocal in the classrooms and much more at risk for sexual harassment from teachers, coaches, classmates, and professors), in social interactions and in media messages. The stereotypes that boys should be strong, forceful, active, dominant, and rational and that girls should be pretty, subordinate, unintelligent, emotional, and gabby are portrayed in children’s toys, books, commercials, video games, movies, television shows and music. In adulthood, these differences are reflected in income gaps between men and women where women working full-time earn about 74 percent the income of men, in higher rates of women suffering rape and domestic violence, higher rates of eating disorders for females, and in higher rates of violent death for men in young adulthood. Each of these differences will be explored further in subsequent chapters.
The impact in India: Gender differences in India can be a matter of life and death as preferences for male children have been strong historically and are still held, especially in rural areas. (WHO, 2010). Male children are given preference for receiving food, breast milk, medical care and other resources. It is no longer legal to give parents information on the sex of their developing child for fear that they will abort a female fetus. Clearly, gender socialization and discrimination still impact development in a variety of ways across the globe.
5.06: Childhood Stress and Development
What is the impact of stress on child development? Children experience different types of stressors. Normal, everyday stress can provide an opportunity for young children to build coping skills and poses little risk to development. Even more long-lasting stressful events such as changing schools or losing a loved one can be managed fairly well. But children who experience toxic stress or who live in extremely stressful situations of abuse over long periods of time can suffer long-lasting effects. The structures in the midbrain or limbic system such as the hippocampus and amygdala can be vulnerable to prolonged stress during early childhood (Middlebrooks and Audage, 2008). High levels of the stress hormone cortisol can reduce the size of the hippocampus and effect the child’s memory abilities. Stress hormones can also reduce immunity to disease. The brain exposed to long periods of severe stress can develop a low threshold making the child hypersensitive to stress in the future. However, the effects of stress can be minimized if the child has the support of caring adults.
In the next lesson, we continue to look at childhood as we examine the period between starting school and entering adolescence known as middle childhood.
5.07: Labeling and Children
As you read the chapters on childhood, you may notice that the process of diagnosing and labeling children is changing. For example, you can look at the campaign to get rid of the ‘R word’ (retardation) by going to www.r-word.org. Read about the controversy over using diagnostic labels that either rigidly categorize and/or stigmatize children. Both labels of autism and fetal alcohol syndrome have now been replaced with “autism spectrum disorders” and “fetal alcohol spectrum disorders”, respectively. Why have these changes occurred? What impact does labeling a child with a diagnosis have on that child? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Please post twice and respond twice for full credit.
5.08: Childhood
Choose two of the following:
1. Explain the merits of breastfeeding. What are the pros and cons?
2. Examine nutritional content in popular foods consumed by children in early childhood. Choose two popular food products targeted toward this age group to analyze.
3. Illustrate animism, egocentrism, and centration using children’s games or media. Find one example of each and explain how it reflects these concepts.
4. Prepare recommendations to avoid health risks in school-aged children. Consider what you have learned about nutrition and physical activity. Incorporate the problems you know about with respect to this age group when preparing your recommendations. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/05%3A_Early_Childhood/5.04%3A_Psychosocial_Development.txt |
Lecture Transcript
Early childhood is sometimes referred to as the preschool years. This is a period of the life span after infancy and before the child begins formal schooling. This is typically from ages 3 to 5 or 2 to 6 years.
First, let’s examine physical growth.
There is considerable difference in the body proportions of a child entering and exiting this stage. Toddlers have large heads and stomachs and short arms and legs. But 6 year old children tend to have longer, leaner bodies as their torso lengthens.
The rate of physical growth in early childhood is slower than what was found in infancy. Overall physical growth is at the rate of about 3 inches in height per year. And about 4.5 pounds of weight is gained each year. The average 6 year old in the United States is about 46 inches tall and weighs about 46 pounds. This slower growth rate translates into a smaller appetite for children between ages 2 and 6 years.
This diminished appetite means these children are vulnerable to nutritional deficiencies. This is particularly true if those small appetites are satisfied with foods poor in nutrition. Preschoolers can suffer iron deficiencies particularly if they drink too much cow’s milk which interferes with the body’s ability to absorb iron. Children in the United States consume too many high fat, high sugar junk foods. And while the effects of such poor nutrition might not be immediately evident, the preference for eating such intensely sugary and fatty foods is being established and can interfere with nutrition for years to come.
How can you avoid setting up eating problems in this age group? The following tips are directed toward establishing reasonable expectations about food and avoiding associating food with psychological needs.
• First, don’t try to force feed your child or fight with them over food.
• Recognize that appetites vary and adjust accordingly.
• Keep mealtime pleasant and as a time for family members to unite and enjoy one another’s company.
• Don’t become a short order chef. Choose a reasonable menu that all can share.
• Limit choices, particularly when allowing young children to make selections. Too many options can be confusing.
• Serve balanced meals. Take the time to think about nutrition and prepare meals that are healthy.
• Don’t bribe the child with food. Offering certain foods as rewards can set up a hierarchy of good and bad foods which can get in the way of eating healthy meals.
Now let’s turn our attention to the brain. During early childhood, the brain continues to grow and mature. At age 2, the brain is 75% its adult weight. By age 6, it’s at 95 percent its adult weight. And by 7, the brain is about 100% its adult weight. Changes in the child’s ability to override emotional outbursts and to coordinate movement are seen as the cortex continues to mature. Visual pathways continue to be established and the child becomes able to reproduce what is seen on paper when drawing. The left hemisphere of the brain undergoes a growth spurt between ages 3 and 6 facilitating language skills. The right hemisphere grows throughout childhood improving spatial skills, and the recognition of shapes and patterns. Corpus callosum also grows between 3-6 years.
Gross motor skill development occupies much of the life of a young child. Running, jumping, swinging, and learning to ride a bicycle are all examples of gross motor skills. Many childhood songs combine music and words with large physical movements. Can you think of any examples? How about “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes”? Remember that one?
Young children are also practicing their fine motor skills by learning to pour, using scissors, and coloring. Early childhood classrooms include a number of activities for improving fine motor skills. Many songs and children’s activities incorporate fine motor skills. Have you ever heard the song, “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”? You’ll find a video of it being performed in your lesson. Enjoy!
Sexual development begins even before birth. Erections and vaginal lubrication are present before birth. In infancy, babies stimulate their genitals when they have sufficient motor skills. Their curiosity about the genitals continues in early childhood. Hopefully, this curiosity is met with a reasonable response rather than one that evokes shame or fear.
Let’s continue our look at cognitive development.
Recall Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development: preoperational intelligence. Early childhood is a time of learning to use thought to solve problems and learning to know and communicate about the world through the use of symbols, primarily language. Now the child can think about what happened several days ago or image an event. Watch closely and you may see a child surprised by being able to hear a song in their head. “Wow! I can hear a song and it’s playing in my head!” Being able to think about the world in this new way doesn’t mean that the child is logical about how the world works. Preoperational thought is ‘prelogical’ or before logical. Instead, there may be a tendency to believe that everyone sees the world through the child’s eyes. I’ll give you an example. One child came up to me at around Halloween (October) and said “I know why god put skin on people.” “Oh, really? Why?” I responded. The child proudly reported, “So they wouldn’t be scary to little kids!”
Here are some other aspects of preoperational thought. Children love to play out roles at this age. This type of play, called sociodramatic play, allows them to take on a role fully and think about how to speak and act as well as what kinds of props are needed to become the part.
Syncretism refers to thinking that if two events occur simultaneously, one must have caused the other. A child whose mother brought a baby with her when she last left the hospital may think that a new visit to the same building will produce another child!
Egocentrism is one of Piaget’s early concepts that refer to how these children assume that everyone thinks the way that they do.
Try reading to a child and they may ask, “Where am I in the story?” They believe that they are at the center of activity. Or you may head a child ask whether a character in a movie or cartoon loves them? That’s an odd question, unless you’re a 3 year old.
Animism is the thought that objects have lifelike qualities. Be sure to watch the video clip in your lesson. It’s an attempt to help young children distinguish between living and non-living objects.
Piaget challenged children’s ability to understand how to classify objects. For example, in this image showing numerous red buttons and a single green button, you have objects that can be classified in several ways. If you ask a 3 year old, “What are there more of? Red things, green things, or buttons?” The child will probably respond, “Red things” not recognizing that all are buttons.
Piaget’s experiments on conservation of matter indicated that children have numerous misconceptions about matter. For example, if a container of water is poured into two differently shaped containers so that the water levels now vary, the child may think that the higher water level indicates more liquid. Or a child may think that if one line moves further to the right, it is more or if one row of pennies is widely spaced apart, it has more.
The theory of mind is the understanding that other people have different thoughts than one’s own. This realization replaces egocentrism and occurs between ages 3 and 5, typically; or around age 4. This knowledge of other’s mental states can aid in social relationships. It serves as our everyday mindreading. It can be absent or difficult for children with autism spectrum disorders. Such children may not be able to appreciate other’s mental states, depending on the level of severity of the disorder.
Vocabulary grows at the rate of 10 to 20 new words per day and the child has a vocabulary of approximately 10,000 words by age 6. However, children do not have a complete understanding of words. For example, a child may not understand that the expression, “time flies” simply means that time passes quickly. Children tend to learn nouns more easily than verbs, even in more verb-friendly languages such as Chinese. Rules of grammar may be misapplied. An example of such over-regularization is found in statements such as “I goed there.” Or, “I doed that!” in which adding ed to the end of the word is used to indicate past tense incorrectly.
Remember Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development? This is the potential a child may achieve through guided participation. Language, both verbal and non-verbal is the vehicle of this guidance. Do you ever talk to yourself? When and why? Chances are you talk to yourself as an adult only when you want to express an emotion or clarify your thoughts. This inner speech is not the same as the speech you use when communicating with others; it’s short and to the point. But when you were learning to use language, you may have struggled as you began to use words to communicate ideas to others. You probably spoke aloud. Then words became directed toward your own behavior. You may have talked to yourself with a sort of running commentary about your own activities and feelings as you learned to think using words. Gradually, this egocentric speech (spoken when alone) became private speech, or thinking in language. Inner speech is only spoken aloud if thoughts need to be clarified or emotion expressed.
Now we turn our attention toward psychosocial development in early childhood. We’ll explore self-concept, gender identity, and family life.
A self-concept is one’s own perception or image of self. We aren’t born with a self-concept. It develops through interaction with others. Usually these others are those close to us like parents, siblings, or peers. Let’s look at two theories of self-based on interaction.
Charles Horton Cooley used the metaphor of a mirror or looking-glass when describing this process. Our self-concept develops when we look at how those around us respond to us, how we look, what we say, and what we do. We then use their reactions to make self-judgments. If those around us respond favorably to us, we’ll form a positive sense of self. But if those around us respond with criticism and insult, we interpret that as evidence that we are not good or acceptable. But those around us may respond to us based on more than our own performance or worth. Perhaps they don’t notice what we do well or are reluctant to comment on it. As a result, we may have an inaccurate self-concept. And there may be certain periods in life in which we are more self-conscious or concerned with how others view us. Early childhood may be one of those times as children are piecing together a sense of self.
George Herbert Mead also focused on social interaction as important for developing a sense of self. He divided the self into two parts: the “I” or the spontaneous part of the self that is creative and internally motivated, and the “me” or the part of the self that takes into account what other people think. The key to living well is to find ways to give expression to the “I” with the approval of the “me”. In other words, find out how to be creative and do what you care about within the guidelines of society. The I is inborn. But the me develops through social interaction and a process called “taking the role of the other.” A child first comes to take the role of a significant other person, typically a parent or sibling. A child, who has been told not to do something, may be found saying “no” to himself. Gradually, the child will come to understand how the generalized other, or society at large, comes to view actions. Now a behavior is not just wrong according to a significant other person, it is wrong as a rule of society. In this way, cultural expectations become part of the judgment of self.
Early self-concepts can be quite exaggerated. A child may want to be the biggest, or be able to jump the highest, or to have the longest hair. This exaggerated sense of self is external; the child emphasizes outward expressions and responses in developing a sense of self. Older children tend to become more realistic in their sense of self as they start comparing their own behavior with that of others.
Erikson views early childhood as a time of building on autonomy and taking initiative. The child wants to think of an activity and carry it out without interference of others.
Early childhood is also a time of developing gender identification or a sense of self based on gender. You may recall Freud’s theory of the phallic stage in which the child develops a sense of masculinity or femininity. Nancy Chordorow believed that mothers promote gender specific behavior in the way they interact with sons and daughters. Daughters are kept close and dependent while sons are encouraged to be independent and assertive. Cognitive theory suggests that children actively seek their gender roles through a gender schema in which they sort their world into male and female categories. They ask whether activities, objects, colors, and mannerisms are for boys or girls. Learning theorists focus on the ways in which children are reinforced for gender stereotypic behavior and how modeling and media images promote gender stereotypic behaviors. The focus is on how society imposes gender expectations on children.
How is gender taught? The training is said to begin in infancy as parents treat their sons and daughters differently. In some cultures it means cuddling and speaking to daughters, while directing sons toward outside activities. Sons are given more freedom and less supervision than daughters. And daughters may be given unnecessary assistance thus undermining their confidence. Teachers call on boys more often in the classroom and schools may direct students into certain fields of study based on gender rather than abilitFriends have a different code of behavior for girls than for boys. Girls focus on closeness in friendship whereas boys may focus more on competition.
Is gender taught or do children seek out how to behave based on their sex? Gender expectations are taught and messages are presented in the media, in the schools, among friends, and by family members. But children also vary in the extent to which they follow the roles presented. There is an interactive role between the individual and society’s expectations with respect to gender. This is called “doing gender.” It means that we approach these expectations and respond to them in a variety of ways, depending on individual motives and attributes.
Think of your parents. How would you describe their style of parenting? Are they consistent? Were they alike in their approach to discipline and support? Here are two models of parenting styles. You may be able to identify your own parents to some extent in these descriptions. Of course, these models represent clear categories. Real parents often fall somewhere in between.
Diane Baumrind’s model classifies parents in several ways based on the amount and direction of communication they have with their children, their level of warmth, and the level of maturity expected from the child. The authoritarian model is a traditional model in which the parents are in control. Children are expected to be obedient and respectful. These parents have low warmth and high maturity demands for their children. The permissive model is one in which parents allow children to make the rules. These parents show a good deal of warmth, but have trouble setting limits. The authoritative model is parenting that is strict within reason and that is accompanied by affection. Children have some say in making rules and the exchanges are warm. This is also known as democratic parenting and is the model favored by Baumrind. The parenting program called “Love and Logic” is a good example of this model. Uninvolved parents are unresponsive and non-demanding. As a consequence, their children may difficulty in social relationships, school, and other areas.
LeMaster’s and DeFrain’s model focuses on what parents are trying to accomplish when parenting. It offers a glimpse at the psychological motivation of the parent suggesting that a parent’s psychological needs rather than the child’s developmental needs are frequently being addressed when parenting. The martyr is the type of parent who will do anything for their child; even those things that children should and could do on their own. This is to help the parent feel in control through self-sacrifice with the expectation that the child will be indebted to them. The pal is lonely and wants a friend. The pal lets the child do what they want in hopes that the child will spend time with the parent and satisfy their need for companionship. The police officer/drill sergeant wants direct control and gives the child many obedience tests. Obedience tests are often meaningless activities with the sole purpose of showing the child who is in control. The teacher-counselor parent is one who probably pays too much attention to what the “experts” have to say about parenting. The teacher-counselor takes all responsibility for the child’s behavior and thinks that if they just do the right things, they can have a perfect child. The athletic coach is the preferred model. It involves being objective and consistent in parenting and allowing the child to learn by doing.
Which model is best? It turns out that showing concern, warmth, and support is the most important ingredient. The way this care and concern is demonstrated depends on culture.
As of 2009, 64.2 percent of mothers with children under age 6 and 77.3 percent of mothers with children between the ages of 6 and 17 worked outside the home in the United States. Since the dramatic increase of women in the labor force, we’ve seen many studies done to evaluate the impact of childcare on child development. Most of this attention has been devoted to looking at formal preschools and day care programs and the teacher-child ratios, type of environments, and activities available. The conclusion has been that day care that is stimulating and provides adequate attention to children is beneficial and sometimes superior to the world of children staying at home. In some parts of the world, child care concerns are more about safety and healthcare. Market Women in Liberia are women who sell small items as street or market vendors. These women are providers for their families and also take care of their children. Day care is not available to them so their children accompany them to the markets. These markets are crowded and often near waste dumps. Recently, there has been a nationwide effort to improve the conditions for children in the market places and to offer social services such as nutrition and health care for the children. You can learn more in your reading. Certainly, childcare concerns are varied throughout the world.
Some amount of stress is normal in the lives of children. Normal stress includes everyday frustrations and disappointments and minor illness. These stressors can in fact be good life lessons for children and do not cause harm. But toxic stress is long-term and undermines a child’s sense of safety and support. This might come from living in an abusive household or one filled with neglect. Or it might be due to the lack of safety and fear that results from living in a crime-ridden community or with war. Prolonged stress leads to the production of stress hormones such as cortisol. Normally, these hormones help the body prepare to take action and get out of harm’s way. But prolonged exposure reduces our immunity to disease and leads to problems with digestion, blood pressure, and muscle tensions. In early childhood, our brains are building wiring systems in response to our environments. A child who undergoes chronic, intense stress can develop a low threshold to stress within the brain circuitry. Such a child may be nervous or hyper-vigilant. Having a caring, supportive parent or other caregiver can reduce the impact of toxic stress.
5.10: Early Childhood
Psyc&200 module 6 slides: Early Childhood Development from Lumen Learning | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/05%3A_Early_Childhood/5.09%3A_Early_Childhood.txt |
Middle childhood is the period of life that begins when children enter school and lasts until they reach adolescence. Think for a moment about children this age that you may know. What are their lives like? What kinds of concerns do they express and with what kinds of activities are their days filled? If it were possible, would you want to return to this period of life? Why or why not? Early childhood and adolescence seem to get much more attention than middle childhood. Perhaps this is because growth patterns slow at this time, the id becomes hidden during the latent stage, according to Freud, and children spend much more time in schools, with friends, and in structured activities. It may be easy for parents to lose track of their children’s development unless they stay directly involved in these worlds. I think it is important to stop and give full attention to middle childhood to stay in touch with these children and to take notice of the varied influences on their lives in a larger world.
• 6.1: Introduction to Middle Childhood
Middle childhood is the period of life that begins when children enter school and lasts until they reach adolescence. Growth patterns slow at this time, the id becomes hidden during the latent stage, according to Freud, and children spend much more time in schools, with friends, and in structured activities. It may be easy for parents to lose track of their children’s development unless they stay directly involved in these worlds.
• 6.2: Physical Development
Children tend to slim down and gain muscle strength and lung capacity during middle childhood, making it possible to engage in strenuous physical activity for long periods of time. The brain reaches its adult size at about age 7 so the school-aged child is better able to plan, coordinate activity using both left and right hemispheres of the brain, and to control emotional outbursts.
• 6.3: Cognitive Development
From ages 7 to 11, the school-aged child is in what Piaget referred to as the concrete operational stage of cognitive development. The child can use logic to solve problems tied to their own direct experience but has trouble solving hypothetical problems or considering more abstract problems. The child uses inductive reasoning which means thinking that the world reflects one’s own personal experience.
• 6.4: Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development
Kohlberg called a self-centered approach to moral decision-making pre-conventional moral development. Conventional moral development referred to being able to determine right from wrong based on what other people think. Post-conventional moral development is based on a concern for others; for society as a whole or for an ethical standard rather than a legal standard.
• 6.5: Developmental Problems
Children’s cognitive and social skills are evaluated as they enter and progress through school. Evaluation and diagnosis of a child can be the first step in helping to provide that child with the type of instruction and resources needed. It is important to consider that children can be misdiagnosed and that once a child has received a diagnostic label, the child, teachers, and family members may tend to interpret actions of the child through that label.
• 6.6: Learning and Intelligence - Schools and Testing
Intelligence tests and psychological definitions of intelligence have been heavily criticized since the 1970s for being biased in favor of Anglo-American, middle-class respondents and for being inadequate tools for measuring non-academic types of intelligence or talent. Achievement tests are used to measure what a child has already learned. Aptitude tests are designed to measure a student’s ability to learn or to determine if a person has potential in a particular program.
• 6.7: Psychosocial Development
Children in middle childhood have a more realistic sense of self than do those in early childhood. Contemporary children also receive messages from the media about how they should look and act. According to Erikson, children in middle childhood are very busy or industrious. They are constantly doing, planning, playing, getting together with friends, achieving. This is a very active time and a time when they are gaining a sense of how they measure up when compared with friends.
• 6.8: Middle Childhood
• 6.9: Middle Childhood
• 6.10: Childhood
• 6.11: Unit 2 Exam
06: Middle Childhood
Learning Objectives
• Describe physical growth during middle childhood.
• Prepare recommendations to avoid health risks in school-aged children.
• Describe recognized examples of concrete operational intelligence.
• Define conservation, reversibility, and identity in concrete operational intelligence.
• Explain information processing theory of memory.
• Characterize language development in middle childhood.
• Compare preconventional, conventional, and postconventional moral development.
• Define learning disability and describe dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
• Evaluate the impact of labeling on children’s self-concept and social relationships.
• Explain the rationale for identifying childhood conditions as spectrum disorders.
• Explain the controversy over the use of standardized testing in schools.
• Compare Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence.
• Compare aptitude and achievement tests.
• Apply the ecological systems model to explore children’s experiences in schools.
• Examine social relationships in middle childhood.
• Characterized the incidence and impact of sexual abuse in middle childhood.
• Analyze the impact of family structure on children’s development.
• Describe the developmental stages of stepfamilies.
Introduction
Middle childhood is the period of life that begins when children enter school and lasts until they reach adolescence. Think for a moment about children this age that you may know. What are their lives like? What kinds of concerns do they express and with what kinds of activities are their days filled? If it were possible, would you want to return to this period of life? Why or why not? Early childhood and adolescence seem to get much more attention than middle childhood. Perhaps this is because growth patterns slow at this time, the id becomes hidden during the latent stage, according to Freud, and children spend much more time in schools, with friends, and in structured activities. It may be easy for parents to lose track of their children’s development unless they stay directly involved in these worlds. I think it is important to stop and give full attention to middle childhood to stay in touch with these children and to take notice of the varied influences on their lives in a larger world.
REFERENCES:
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Asperger syndrome: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. (2006). National Library of Medicine – National Institutes of Health. Retrieved May 05, 2011, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/e...cle/001549.htm
Berk, L. (2007). Development through the life span (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Boulton, M. J. (1999). Concurrent and longitudinal relations between children’s playground behavior and social preference, victimization, and bullying. Child Development, 70, 944-954.
Chao, R. (2001). Extending research on the consequences of parenting styles for Chinese Americans and European Americans. Child Development, 72, 1832-1843.
Cillesen, A. H., & Mayeaux, L. (2004). From censure to reinforcement: Developmental changes in the association between aggression and social status.. Child Development, 75, 147-163.
Considered, A. T. (n.d.). Youth Soccer Coaches Encouraged to Ease Regimen : NPR. NPR : National Public Radio : News & Analysis, World, US, Music & Arts : NPR. Retrieved May 05, 2011, from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=5428473
Davis, N. J. (1999). Youth crisis: Growing up in the high-risk society. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Drexler, P. (2005). Raising boys without men. Emmaus, PA: Rodale.
Finkelhor, D. (1984). Child sexual abuse: New theory and research. New York: Free Press.
Finkelhor, D., Hotaling, G., Lewis, I. A., & Smith, C. (1990). Sexual abuse in a national survey of adult men and women: Prevalence, characteristics, and risk factors. Child Abuse and Neglect, 14, 19-28.
Furstenberg, F. F., & Cherlin, A. J. (1991). Divided families: What happens to children when parents part. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.
Gardner, H. (1998). Are there additional intelligences? The case for naturalist, spiritual, and existentialist intelligences. In J. Kane (Ed.), Education, information, and transformation: Essays on learning and thinking. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Guttmann, J. (1993). Divorce in psychosocial perspective: Theory and research. Hillsdale, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates.
Harmanci, R. (2006, December 17). Sex inuendo: Under the tree over the punch bowl. Cultural shift: Little girls, sexy dolls-toy industry markets to ‘Kids growing older younger. Retrieved January 3, 2007, from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NGoMN18MP1.DTL
Hetherington, E. M., & Kelly, J. (2002). For better or for worse: Divorce reconsidered. New York: W.W. Norton.
Horvat, E. M. (2004). Moments of social inclusion and exclusion: Race, class, and cultural capital in family-school relationships. In A. Lareau (Author) & J. H. Ballantine & J. Z. Spade (Eds.), Schools and society: A sociological approach to education (2nd ed., pp. 276-286). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Irvine, M. (2006). 10 is the new 15 as kids grow up faster. Retrieved January 3, 2007, from http://ww.foxnews.com/wires/2006Nov2...Tweens.00.html
Kohlberg, L. (1963). The development of children’s oreintations toward a moral order: Sequence in the development of moral thought. Vita Humana, 16, 11-36.
McLanahan, S., & Sandefur, G. D. (1994). Growing up with a single parent: What hurts, what helps. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
McLaren, P. (1999). Schooling as a ritual performance: Toward a political economy of educational symbols and gestures (3rd ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Papernow, P. L. (1993). Becoming a stepfamily: Patterns of development in remarried families. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Pervasive Developmental Disorders Information Page. (n.d.). National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Retrieved May 05, 2011, from http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/pdd/pdd.htm
Seccombe, K., & Warner, R. L. (2004). Marriages and families: Relationships in social context. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Spade, J. Z. (2004). Learning the student role: Kindergarten as Academic Boot Camp. In H. Gracey (Author) & J. H. Ballantine (Ed.), Schools and society: A sociological approach to education (2nd ed., pp. 144-148). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
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Squires, R. (2006, November 3). Marketers hijack sexuality: Expert decries young girls’ loss of childhood. Winnipeg Sun. Retrieved January 3, 2007, from http://www.jeankilbourne.com/news.htm.
Sternberg, R. J. (1997). Successful intelligence: How practical and creative intelligence determine success in life. New York: Plume.
Sternberg, R. J. (1999). A triarchic approach to understanding and assessment of intelligence in multicultural populations. Journal of School Psychology, 37, 145-159.
Stewart, A. J., Copeland, Chester, Malley, & Barenbaum. (1997). Separating together: How divorce transforms families. New York: Guilford Press.
Turnbull, J. K. (1985). To dream the impossible dream: An agenda for discussion with stepparents. In S. K. Turnbull (Author) & L. Cargen (Ed.), Marriage and family: Coping with change. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
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Woitalla, M. (2006, January 30). Remember, it’s playtime. Retrieved December 23, 2006, from http://www.socceramerica.com/article...t_ID=562136883 | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/06%3A_Middle_Childhood/6.01%3A_Introduction_to_Middle_Childhood.txt |
Growth Rates and Motor Skills
Rates of growth generally slow during Middle Childhood. Typically, a child will gain about 5-7 pounds a year and grow about 2 inches per year. They also tend to slim down and gain muscle strength and lung capacity making it possible to engage in strenuous physical activity for long periods of time. The brain reaches its adult size at about age 7. The school-aged child is better able to plan, coordinate activity using both left and right hemispheres of the brain, and to control emotional outbursts. Paying attention is also improved as the prefrontal cortex matures. And as the myelin continues to develop, the child’s reaction time also improves as well. One result of the slower rate of growth is an improvement in motor skills. Children of this age tend to sharpen their abilities to perform both gross motor skills such as riding a bike and fine motor skills such as cutting their fingernails.
Organized Sports: Pros and Cons
Middle childhood seems to be a great time to introduce children to organized sports. And in fact, many parents do. Nearly 3 million children play soccer in the United States (listen to NPR’s “Youth Soccer Coaches Encouraged to Ease Regimen” story from 5/24/06). This activity promises to help children build social skills, improve athletically and learn a sense of competition. It has been suggested, however, that the emphasis on competition and athletic skill can be counterproductive and lead children to grow tired of the game and want to quit. In many respects, it appears that children’s activities are no longer children’s activities once adults become involved and approach the games as adults rather than children. The U. S. Soccer Federation recently advised coaches to reduce the amount of drilling engaged in during practice and to allow children to play more freely and to choose their own positions. The hope is that this will build on their love of the game and foster their natural talents.
New Concerns
Childhood Obesity
Rates: About 16 to 33 percent of American children are obese (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2005). This is defined as being at least 20 percent over their ideal weight. The percentage of obesity in school aged children has increased substantially since the 1960s and has in fact doubled since the 1980s.
Reasons: This is true in part because of the introduction of a steady diet of television and other sedentary activities. In addition, we have come to emphasize high fat, fast foods as a culture. Pizza, hamburgers, chicken nuggets and “lunchables” with soda have replaced more nutritious foods as staples.
Consequences: Children who are overweight tend to be ridiculed and teased by others. This can certainly be damaging to their self-image and popularity. In addition, obese children run the risk of suffering orthopedic problems such as knee injuries, and an increase risk of heart disease and stroke in adulthood. It’s hard for a child who is obese to become a non-obese adult. In addition, the number of cases of pediatric diabetes has risen dramatically in recent years.
Recommendations: Dieting is not really the answer. If you diet, your basal metabolic rate tends to decrease thereby making the body burn even fewer calories in order to maintain the weight. Increased activity is much more effective in lowering the weight and improving the child’s health and psychological well-being. Exercise reduces stress and being an overweight child, subjected to the ridicule of others can certainly be stressful. Parents should take caution against emphasizing diet alone to avoid the development of any obsession about dieting that can lead to eating disorders as teens. Again, increasing a child’s activity level is most helpful.
A Look at School Lunches: Many children in the United States buy their lunches in the school cafeteria, so it might be worthwhile to look at the nutritional content of school lunches. You can obtain this information through your local school district’s website. An example of a school menu and nutritional analysis from a school district in north central Texas is a meal consisting of pasta alfredo, bread stick, peach cup, tomato soup, and a brownie, and 2% milk and is in compliance with Federal Nutritional Guidelines of 108% calories, 24 % protein, 55 % carbohydrates, 27% fat, and 8% saturated fats, according to the website. Students may also purchase chips, cookies, or ice cream along with their meals. Many school districts rely on the sale of desert and other items in the lunchrooms to make additional revenues. Many children purchase these additional items and so our look at their nutritional intake should also take this into consideration.
Consider another menu from an elementary school in the state of Washington. This sample meal consists of chicken burger, tater tots, fruit and veggies and 1% or nonfat milk. This meal is also in compliance with Federal Nutrition Guidelines but has about 300 fewer calories. And, children are not allowed to purchase additional deserts such as cookies or ice cream.
Of course, children eat away from school as well. Listen to NPR’s Kids Have Easy Access to Junk Food to hear a story about how advertising and fast food restaurant locations may influence children’s diets. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/06%3A_Middle_Childhood/6.02%3A_Physical_Development.txt |
Recall from our last lesson on early childhood are in the preoperational stage, according to Piaget, and during this stage children are learning to think symbolically about the world.
Concrete Operational Thought
From ages 7 to 11, the school-aged child is in what Piaget referred to as the concrete operational stage of cognitive development. This involves mastering the use of logic in concrete ways. The child can use logic to solve problems tied to their own direct experience but has trouble solving hypothetical problems or considering more abstract problems. The child uses inductive reasoning which means thinking that the world reflects one’s own personal experience. For example, a child has one friend who is rude, another friend who is also rude, and the same is true for a third friend. The child may conclude that friends are rude. (We will see that this way of thinking tends to change during adolescence being replaced with deductive reasoning.)
The word concrete refers to that which is tangible; that which can be seen or touched or experienced directly. The concrete operational child is able to make use of logical principles in solving problems involving the physical world. For example, the child can understand principles of cause and effect, size, and distance.
Classification: As children’s experiences and vocabularies grow, they build schema and are able to classify objects in many different ways. Look at the word below and write a list of the ways in which it could be classified:
BALL
(Compare your list with the one at the end of the lesson.)
Identity: One feature of concrete operational thought is the understanding that objects have an identity or qualities that do not change even if the object is altered in some way. For instance, mass of an object does not change by rearranging it. A piece of chalk is still chalk even when the piece is broken in two.
Reversibility: The child learns that some things that have been changed can be returned to their original state. Water can be frozen and then thawed to become liquid again. But eggs cannot be unscrambled. Arithmetic operations are reversible as well: 2 + 3 = 5 and 5 – 3 = 2. Many of these cognitive skills are incorporated into the school’s curriculum through mathematical problems and in worksheets about which situations are reversible or irreversible. (If you have access to children’s school papers, look for examples of these.)
Reciprocity: Remember the example in our last lesson of children thinking that a tall beaker filled with 8 ounces of water was “more” than a short, wide bowl filled with 8 ounces of water? Concrete operational children can understand the concept of reciprocity which means that changing one quality (in this example, height or water level) can be compensated for by changes in another quality (width). So there is the same amount of water in each container although one is taller and narrower and the other is shorter and wider.
These new cognitive skills increase the child’s understanding of the physical world. Operational or logical thought about the abstract world comes later.
Information Processing Theory
Information processing theory is a classic theory of memory that compares the way in which the mind works to computer storing, processing and retrieving information.
There are three levels of memory:
1) Sensory register: Information first enters our sensory register. Stop reading and look around the room very quickly. (Yes, really. Do it!) Okay. What do you remember? Chances are, not much. Everything you saw and heard entered into your sensory register. And although you might have heard yourself sigh, caught a glimpse of your dog walking across the room, and smelled the soup on the stove, you did not register those sensations. Sensations are continuously coming into our brains, and yet most of these sensations are never really perceived or stored in our minds. They are lost after a few seconds because they were immediately filtered out as irrelevant. If the information is not perceived or stored, it is discarded quickly.
2) Working memory (short-term memory): If information is meaningful (either because it reminds us of something else or because we must remember it for something like a history test we will be taking in 5 minutes), it makes its way into our working memory. This consists of information of which we are immediately aware. All of the things on your mind at this moment are part of your working memory. There is a limited amount of information that can be kept in the working memory at any given time. So, if you are given too much information at a time, you may lose some of it. (Have you ever been writing down notes in a class and the instructor speaks too quickly for you to get it all in your notes? You are trying to get it down and out of your working memory to make room for new information and if you cannot “dump” that information onto your paper and out of your mind quickly enough, you lose what has been said.)
Information in our working memory must be stored in an effective way in order to be accessible to us for later use. It is stored in our long-term memory or knowledge base.
3) Knowledge base (long-term memory): This level of memory has an unlimited capacity and stores information for days, months or years. It consists of things that we know of or can remember if asked. This is where you want information to ultimately be stored. The important thing to remember about storage is that it must be done in a meaningful or effective way. In other words, if you simply try to repeat something several times in order to remember it, you may only be able to remember the sound of the word rather than the meaning of the concept. So if you are asked to explain the meaning of the word or to apply a concept in some way, you will be lost. Studying involves organizing information in a meaningful way for later retrieval. Passively reading a text is usually inadequate and should be thought of as the first step in learning material. Writing key words, thinking of examples to illustrate their meaning, and considering ways that concepts are related are all techniques helpful for organizing information for effective storage and later retrieval.
During middle childhood, children are able to learn and remember due to an improvement in the ways they attend to and store information. As children enter school and learn more about the world, they develop more categories for concepts and learn more efficient strategies for storing and retrieving information. One significant reason is that they continue to have more experiences on which to tie new information. New experiences are similar to old ones or remind the child of something else about which they know. This helps them file away new experiences more easily.
They also have a better understanding of how well they are performing on a task and the level of difficulty of a task. As they become more realistic about their abilities, they can adapt studying strategies to meet those needs. While preschoolers may spend as much time on an unimportant aspect of a problem as they do on the main point, school aged children start to learn to prioritize and gage what is significant and what is not. They develop metacognition or the ability to understand the best way to figure out a problem. They gain more tools and strategies (such as “i before e except after c” so they know that “receive” is correct but “recieve” is not.)
Language Development
Vocabulary
One of the reasons that children can classify objects in so many ways is that they have acquired a vocabulary to do so. By 5th grade, a child’s vocabulary has grown to 40,000 words. It grows at the rate of 20 words per day, a rate that exceeds that of preschoolers. This language explosion, however, differs from that of preschoolers because it is facilitated by being able to association new words with those already known and because it is accompanied by a more sophisticated understanding of the meanings of a word.
New Understanding
The child is also able to think of objects in less literal ways. For example, of asked for the first word that comes to mind when one hears the word “pizza”, the preschooler is likely to say “eat” or some word that describes what is done with a pizza. However, the school-aged child is more likely to place pizza in the appropriate category and say “food” or “carbohydrate”.
This sophistication of vocabulary is also evidenced in the fact that school-aged children are able to tell jokes and delight in doing do. They may use jokes that involve plays on words such as “knock-knock” jokes or jokes with punch lines. Preschoolers do not understand plays on words and rely on telling “jokes” that are literal or slapstick such as “A man fell down in the mud! Isn’t that funny?”
Grammar and Flexibility
School-aged children are also able to learn new rules of grammar with more flexibility. While preschoolers are likely to be reluctant to give up saying “I goed there”, school-aged children will learn this rather quickly along with other rules of grammar.
While the preschool years might be a good time to learn a second language (being able to understand and speak the language), the school years may be the best time to be taught a second language (the rules of grammar).
How many ways can you classify “ball”? It’s a word, a round object, a toy, a shape, a rolling object, a piece of playground equipment, another word for “fun”, etc. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/06%3A_Middle_Childhood/6.03%3A_Cognitive_Development.txt |
Lawrence Kohlberg (1963) built on the work of Piaget and was interested in finding out how our moral reasoning changes as we get older. He wanted to find out how people decide what is right and what is wrong. In order to explore this area, he read a story containing a moral dilemma to boys of different age groups. In the story, a man is trying to obtain an expensive drug that his wife needs in order to treat her cancer. The man has no money and no one will loan him the money he requires. He begs the pharmacist to reduce the price, but the pharmacist refuses. So, the man decides to break into the pharmacy to steal the drug. Then Kohlberg asked the children to decide whether the man was right or wrong in his choice. Kohlberg was not interested in whether they said the man was right or wrong, he was interested in finding out how they arrived at such a decision. He wanted to know what they thought made something right or wrong.
Pre-conventional Moral Development
The youngest subjects seemed to answer based on what would happen to the man as a result of the act. For example, they might say the man should not break into the pharmacy because the pharmacist might find him and beat him. Or they might say that the man should break in and steal the drug and his wife will give him a big kiss. Right or wrong, both decisions were based on what would physically happen to the man as a result of the act. This is a self-centered approach to moral decision-making. He called this most superficial understanding of right and wrong pre-conventional moral development.
Conventional Moral Development
Middle childhood boys seemed to base their answers on what other people would think of the man as a result of his act. For instance, they might say he should break into the store, and then everyone would think he was a good husband. Or, he shouldn’t because it is against the law. In either case, right and wrong is determined by what other people think. A good decision is one that gains the approval of others or one that complies with the law. This he called conventional moral development.
Post-conventional Moral Development
Older children were the only ones to appreciate the fact that this story has different levels of right and wrong. Right and wrong are based on social contracts established for the good of everyone or on universal principles of right and wrong that transcend the self and social convention. For example, the man should break into the store because, even if it is against the law, the wife needs the drug and her life is more important than the consequences the man might face for breaking the law. Or, the man should not violate the principle of the right of property because this rule is essential for social order. In either case, the person’s judgment goes beyond what happens to the self. It is based on a concern for others; for society as a whole or for an ethical standard rather than a legal standard. This level is called post-conventional moral development because it goes beyond convention or what other people think to a higher, universal ethical principle of conduct that may or may not be reflected in the law. Notice that such thinking (the kind supreme justices do all day in deliberating whether a law is moral or ethical, etc.) requires being able to think abstractly. Often this is not accomplished until a person reaches adolescence or adulthood.
Exercise:
Consider your own decision-making processes. What guides your decisions? Are you primarily concerned with your personal well-being? Do you make choices based on what other people will think about your decision? Or are you guided by other principles? To what extent is this approach guided by your culture? | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/06%3A_Middle_Childhood/6.04%3A_Kohlberg%27s_Stages_of_Moral_Development.txt |
Children’s cognitive and social skills are evaluated as they enter and progress through school. Sometimes this evaluation indicates that a child needs special assistance with language or in learning how to interact with others. Evaluation and diagnosis of a child can be the first step in helping to provide that child with the type of instruction and resources needed. But diagnosis and labeling also have social implications. It is important to consider that children can be misdiagnosed and that once a child has received a diagnostic label, the child, teachers, and family members may tend to interpret actions of the child through that label. The label can also influence the child’s self-concept. Consider, for example, a child who is misdiagnosed as learning disabled. That child may expect to have difficulties in school, lack confidence, and out of these expectations, have trouble indeed. This self-fulfilling prophecy or tendency to act in such a way as to make what you predict will happen comes true, calls our attention to the power that labels can have whether or not they are accurately applied. It is also important to consider that children’s difficulties can change over time; a child who has problems in school, may improve later or may live under circumstances as an adult where the problem (such as a delay in math skills or reading skills) is no longer relevant. That person, however, will still have a label as learning disabled. It should be recognized that the distinction between abnormal and normal behavior is not always clear; some abnormal behavior in children is fairly common. Misdiagnosis may be more of a concern when evaluating learning difficulties than in cases of autism spectrum disorder where unusual behaviors are clear and consistent.
Keeping these cautionary considerations in mind, let’s turn our attention to some developmental and learning difficulties.
Autism Spectrum Disorders
The estimate published by the Center for Disease Control (2006) is that about 1 out of every 166 children in the United States has an autism spectrum disorder. Autism spectrum disorders include autism, Asperger’s disorder and pervasive developmental disabilities. Many of these children are not identified until they reach school age. In 2003, about 141,000 children received special education through the public schools (Center for Disease Control, 2006). These disorders are found in all racial and ethnic groups and are more common in boys than in girls. All of these disorders are marked by difficulty in social interactions, problems in various areas of communication, and in difficulty with altering patterns or daily routines. There is no single cause of ASDs and the causes of these disorders are to a large extent, unknown. In cases involving identical twins, if one twin has autism, the other is also autistic about 75 percent of the time. Rubella, fragile X syndrome and PKU that has been untreated are some of the medical conditions associated with risks of autism.
None of these disorders is curable. Some individuals benefit from medications that alleviate some of the symptoms of ASDs. But the most effective treatments involve behavioral intervention and teaching techniques used to promote the development of language and social skills, and to structure learning environments that accommodate the needs of these children.
Autism is a developmental disorder more commonly known than Asperger’s or Pervasive Developmental disorders. A person with autism has difficulty with and a lack of interest in learning language. An autistic child may respond to a question by repeating the question or might rarely speak. Sometimes autistic children learn more difficult words before simple words or complicated tasks before easier ones. The person has difficulty reading social cues such as the meanings of non-verbal gestures such as a wave of the hand or the emotion associated with a frown. Intense sensitivity to touch or visual stimulation may also be experienced. Autistic children have poor social skills and are unable to communicate with others or empathize with others emotionally. An autistic views the world differently and learns differently than others. Autistic children tend to prefer routines and patterns and become upset when routines are altered. For example, moving the furniture or changing the daily schedule can be very upsetting.
Asperger’s syndrome is considered by some to be the same as high functioning autism. Others suggest that Asperger’s disorder is different from autism in that language development is generally not delayed (Medline Plus, 2006). A person with Asperger’s syndrome does not experience cognitive developmental delays, but has difficulty in social interactions. This person may be identified as strange by others, may have difficulty reading or identifying with other people’s emotions, and may prefer routine and become upset if routines are disrupted. Many people with Asperger’s syndrome may have above average intelligence and may have an intense focus of interests in a particular field. For example, a person may be extremely interested in and knowledgeable about cars. Another might be very interested in the smell of people’s shoes.
Pervasive developmental disorder is a term used to refer to difficulties in socialization and delays in developing communicative skills. This is usually recognized before 3 years of age. A child with PDD may interact in unusual ways with toys, people, or situations, and may engage in repetitive movement.
Learning Disabilities
What is a learning disability? The spectrum disorders just described impact many areas of the child’s life. And if a child is mentally retarded, that child is typically slow in all areas of learning. However, a child with a learning disability has problems in a specific area or with a specific task or type of activity related to education. A learning difficulty refers to a deficit in a child’s ability to perform an expected academic skill (Berger, 2005). These difficulties are identified in school because this is when children’s academic abilities are being tested, compared, and measured. Consequently, once academic testing is no longer essential in that person’s life (as when they are working rather than going to school) these disabilities may no longer be noticed or relevant, depending on the person’s job and the extent of the disability.
Dyslexia is one of the most commonly diagnosed disabilities and involves having difficulty in the area of reading. This diagnosis is used for a number of reading difficulties. For example, the child may reverse letters or have difficulty reading from left to right or may have problems associating letters with sounds. It appears to be rooted in some neurological problems involving the parts of the brain active in recognizing letters, verbally responding, or being able to manipulate sounds (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, 2006). Treatment typically involves altering teaching methods to accommodate the person’s particular problematic area.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is considered a neurological and behavioral disorder in which a person has difficulty staying on task, screening out distractions, and inhibiting behavioral outbursts. The most commonly recommended treatment involves the use of medication, structuring the classroom environment to keep distractions at a minimum, tutoring, and teaching parents how to set limits and encourage age-appropriate behavior (NINDS, 2006). | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/06%3A_Middle_Childhood/6.05%3A_Developmental_Problems.txt |
The Controversy over Testing In Schools
Children’s academic performance is often measured with the use of standardized tests. Achievement tests are used to measure what a child has already learned. Achievement tests are often used as measures of teaching effectiveness within a school setting and as a method to make schools that receive tax dollars (such as public schools, charter schools, and private schools that receive vouchers) accountable to the government for their performance. In 2001, President George W. Bush signed into effect the No Child Left Behind Act mandating that schools administer achievement tests to students and publish those results so that parents have an idea of their children’s performance and the government has information on the gaps in educational achievement between children from various social class, racial, and ethnic groups. Schools that show significant gaps in these levels of performance are to work toward narrowing these gaps. Educators have criticized the policy for focusing too much on testing as the only indication of performance levels.
Aptitude tests are designed to measure a student’s ability to learn or to determine if a person has potential in a particular program. These are often used at the beginning of a course of study or as part of college entrance requirements. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) are perhaps the most familiar aptitude tests to students in grades 6 and above. Learning test taking skills and preparing for SATs has become part of the training that some students in these grades receive as part of their pre-college preparation. Other aptitude tests include the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test), the LSAT (Law School Admission Test), and the GRE (Graduate Record Examination). Intelligence tests are also a form of aptitude test which designed to measure a person’s ability to learn.
Theories of Intelligence
Intelligence tests and psychological definitions of intelligence have been heavily criticized since the 1970s for being biased in favor of Anglo-American, middle-class respondents and for being inadequate tools for measuring non-academic types of intelligence or talent. Intelligence changes with experience and intelligence quotients or scores do not reflect that ability to change. What is considered smart varies culturally as well and most intelligence tests do not take this variation into account. For example, in the west, being smart is associated with being quick. A person who answers a question the fastest is seen as the smartest. But in some cultures, being smart is associated with considering an idea thoroughly before giving an answer. A well-thought out, contemplative answer is the best answer.
Exercise:
What do you think? As an adult, what kind of intellectual skills do you consider to be most important for your success? Consequently, how would you define intelligence?
Multiple Intelligences
Gardner (1983, 1998, 1999) suggests that there are not one, but nine domains of intelligence. The first three are skills that are measured by IQ tests:
• Logical-mathematical: the ability to solve mathematical problems; problems of logic, numerical patterns
• Linguistic: vocabulary, reading comprehension, function of language
• Spatial: visual accuracy, ability to read maps, understand space and distance
The next six represent skills that are not measured in standard IQ tests but are talents or abilities that can also be important for success in a variety of fields: These are:
• Musical: ability to understand patterns in music, hear pitches, recognize rhythms and melodies
• Bodily-kinesthetic: motor coordination, grace of movement, agility, strength
• Naturalistic: knowledge of plants, animals, minerals, climate, weather
• Interpersonal: understand the emotion, mood, motivation of others; able to communicate effectively
• Intrapersonal: understanding of the self, mood, motivation, temperament, realistic knowledge of strengths, weaknesses
• Existential: concern about and understanding of life’s larger questions, meaning of life, or spiritual matters
Gardner contends that these are also forms of intelligence. A high IQ does not always ensure success in life or necessarily indicate that a person has common sense, good interpersonal skills or other abilities important for success.
Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
Another alternative view of intelligence is presented by Sternberg (1997; 1999). Sternberg offers three types of intelligences. Sternberg provided background information about his view of intelligence in a conference I attended several years ago. He described his frustration as a committee member charged with selecting graduate students for a program in psychology. He was concerned that there was too much emphasis placed on aptitude test scores and believed that there were other, less easily measured, qualities necessary for success in a graduate program and in the world of work. Aptitude test scores indicate the first type of intelligence-academic.
• Academic (componential): includes the ability to solve problems of logic, verbal comprehension, vocabulary, and spatial abilities.
Sternberg noted that students who have high academic abilities may still not have what is required to be a successful graduate student or a competent professional. To do well as a graduate student, he noted, the person needs to be creative. The second type of intelligence emphasizes this quality.
• Creative (experiential): the ability to apply newly found skills to novel situations.
A potential graduate student might be strong academically and have creative ideas, but still be lacking in the social skills required to work effectively with others or to practice good judgment in a variety of situations. This common sense is the third type of intelligence.
• Practical (contextual): the ability to use common sense and to know what is called for in a situation.
This type of intelligence helps a person know when problems need to be solved. Practical intelligence can help a person know how to act and what to wear for job interviews, when to get out of problematic relationships, how to get along with others at work, and when to make changes to reduce stress.
Let’s apply these theories of intelligence to the world of children. To what extent are these types of intelligences cultivated at home and in the schools?
The World of School
Remember the ecological systems model that we explored in Lesson 2? This model helps us understand an individual by examining the contexts in which the person lives and the direct and indirect influences on that person’s life. School becomes a very important component of children’s lives during middle childhood and one way to understand children is to look at the world of school. We have discussed educational policies that impact the curriculum in schools above. Now let’s focus on the school experience from the standpoint of the student, the teacher and parent relationship, and the cultural messages or hidden curriculum taught in school in the United States.
Parental Involvement in School: Parents vary in their level of involvement with their children’s schools. Teachers often complain that they have difficulty getting parents to participate in their child’s education and devise a variety of techniques to keep parents in touch with daily and overall progress. For example, parents may be required to sign a behavior chart each evening to be returned to school or may be given information about the school’s events through websites and newsletters. There are other factors that need to be considered when looking at parental involvement. To explore these, first ask yourself if all parents who enter the school with concerns about their child be received in the same way? If not, what would make a teacher or principal more likely to consider the parent’s concerns? What would make this less likely?
Lareau and Horvat (2004) found that teachers seek a particular type of involvement from particular types of parents. While teachers thought they were open and neutral in their responses to parental involvement, in reality teachers were most receptive to support, praise and agreement coming from parents who were most similar in race and social class with the teachers. Parents who criticized the school or its policies were less likely to be given voice. Parents who have higher levels of income, occupational status, and other qualities favored in society have family capital. This is a form of power that can be used to improve a child’s education. Parents who do not have these qualities may find it more difficult to be effectively involved. Lareau and Horvat (2004) offer three cases of African-American parents who were each concerned about discrimination in the schools. Despite evidence that such discrimination existed, their children’s white, middle-class teachers were reluctant to address the situation directly. Note the variation in approaches and outcomes for these three families:
The Masons: This working class, African-American couple, a minister and a beautician, voiced direct complaints about discrimination in the schools. Their claims were thought to undermine the authority of the school and as a result, their daughter was kept in a lower reading class. However, her grade was boosted to “avoid a scene” and the parents were not told of this grade change.
The Irvings: This middle class, African-American couple was concerned that the school was discriminating against black students. They fought against it without using direct confrontation by staying actively involved in their daughter’s schooling and making frequent visits to the school so make sure that discrimination could not occur. They also talked with other African-American teachers and parents about their concerns.
Ms. Caldron: This poor, single-parent was concerned about discrimination in the school. She was a recovering drug addict receiving welfare. She did not discuss her concerns with other parents because she did not know the other parents and did not monitor her child’s progress or get involved with the school. She felt that her concerns would not receive attention. She requested spelling lists from the teacher on several occasions but did not receive them. The teacher complained that Ms. Caldron did not sign forms that were sent home for her signature.
Working within the system without direct confrontation seemed to yield better results for the Irvings, although the issue of discrimination in the school was not completely addressed. Ms. Caldron was the least involved and felt powerless in the school setting. Her lack of family capital and lack of knowledge and confidence keep her from addressing her concerns with the teachers. What do you think would happen if she directly addressed the teachers and complained about discrimination? Chances are, she would be dismissed as undermining the authority of the school, just as the Masons, and might be thought to lack credibility because of her poverty and drug addiction. The authors of this study suggest that teachers closely examine their biases against parents. Schools may also need to examine their ability to dialogue with parents about school policies in more open ways. What happens when parents have concerns over school policy or view student problems as arising from flaws in the educational system? How are parents who are critical of the school treated? And are their children treated fairly even when the school is being criticized? Certainly, any efforts to improve effective parental involvement should address these concerns.
Student Perspectives
Imagine being a 3rd-grader for one day in public school. What would the daily routine involve? To what extent would the institution dictate the activities of the day and how much of the day would you spend on those activities? Would always be ‘on task’? What would you say if someone asked you how your day went? Or “What happened in school today?” Chances are, you would be more inclined to talk about whom you sat at lunch with or who brought a puppy to class than to describe how fractions are added.
Ethnographer and Professor of Education Peter McLaren (1999) describes the student’s typical day as filled with constrictive and unnecessary ritual that has a damaging effect on the desire to learn. Students move between various states as they negotiate the demands of the school system and their own personal interests. The majority of the day (298 minutes) takes place in the student state. This state is one in which the student focuses on a task or tries to stay focused on a task, is passive, compliant, and often frustrated. Long pauses before getting out the next book or finding materials sometimes indicate that frustration. The street corner state is one in which the child is playful, energetic, excited, and expresses personal opinions, feelings, and beliefs. About 66 minutes a day take place in this state. Children try to maximize this by going slowly to assemblies or when getting a hall pass-always eager to say ‘hello’ to a friend or to wave if one of their classmates is in another room. This is the state in which friends talk and play. In fact, teachers sometimes reward students with opportunities to move freely or to talk or to be themselves. But when students initiate the street corner state on their own, they risk losing recess time, getting extra homework, or being ridiculed in front of their peers. The home state occurs when parents or siblings visit the school. Children in this state may enjoy special privileges such as going home early or being exempt from certain school rules in the mother’s presence. Or it can be difficult if the parent is there to discuss trouble at school with a staff member. The sanctity state is a time in which the child is contemplative, quiet, or prayerful and is a very brief part of the day.
Since students seem to have so much enthusiasm and energy in street corner states, what would happen if the student and street corner states could be combined? Would it be possible? Many educators feel concern about the level of stress children experience in school. Some stress can be attributed to problems in friendship. And some can be a result of the emphasis on testing and grades, as reflected in a Newsweek article entitled “The New First Grade: Are Kids Getting Pushed Too Fast Too Soon?” (Tyre, 2006). This article reports concerns of a principal who worries that students begin to burn out as early as 3rd grade. In the book, The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing, Kohn (2006) argues that neither research nor experience support claims that homework reinforces learning and builds responsibility. Why do schools assign homework so frequently? A look at cultural influences on education my provide some answers.
Cultural Influences
Another way to examine the world of school is to look at the cultural values, concepts, behaviors and roles that are part of the school experience but are not part of the formal curriculum. These are part of the hidden curriculum but are nevertheless very powerful messages. The hidden curriculum includes ideas of patriotism, gender roles, the ranking of occupations and classes, competition, and other values. Teachers, counselors, and other students specify and make known what is considered appropriate for girls and boys. The gender curriculum continues into high school, college, and professional school. Students learn a ranking system of occupations and social classes as well. Students in gifted programs or those moving toward college preparation classes may be viewed as superior to those who are receiving tutoring.
Gracy (2004) suggests that cultural training occurs early. Kindergarten is an “academic boot camp” in which students are prepared for their future student role-that of complying with an adult imposed structure and routine designed to produce docile, obedient, children who do not question meaningless tasks that will become so much of their future lives as students. A typical day is filled with structure, ritual, and routine that allows for little creativity or direct, hands-on contact. “Kindergarten, therefore, can be seen as preparing children not only for participation in the bureaucratic organization of large modern school systems, but also for the large-scale occupational bureaucracies of modern society.” (Gracy, 2004, p. 148)
What do you think? Let’s examine a kindergarten class schedule taken from a website found by going to Google and typing in “kindergarten schedule”. You can find more of these on your own. Most look similar to this one:
7:55 to 8:20 Math tubs (manipulatives) and small group math lessons
8:20 to 8:35 Class meeting/restroom and drinks
8:35 to 8:55 Math board/calendar
8:55 to 9:10 Whole class math lesson
9:10 to 9:20 Daily news chart
9:20 to 9:50 Shared reading (big books/poem and song charts)
9:50 to 10:15 Language Arts Centers
10:15 to 10:30 Morning recess
10:30 to 10:50 Alphabet/phonics lesson and paper
10:50 to 11:10 Reading Workshop (more centers)
11:10 to 11:20 Picture and word chart
11:20 to 11:40 Writing workshop (journals)
11:40 to 12:20 Lunch and recess
12:20 to 12:50 Rainbow Reading Lab (sequenced file folder activities) or computer lab or internet computers. Children are divided into two groups and do one of these activities each day, title 1 teacher is in my room at this time.
12:50 to 1:20 Theme related activity or art class one day per week
1:20 to 1:35 Afternoon recess (or still in art one day per week)
1:35 to 2:10 Nap/rest time
2:10 to 2:50 Special classes (music, counseling, pe, or library)
2:50 to 3:05 Show and Tell and get ready to go home
(Source: Classroom_Schedules).
To what extent do you think that students are being prepared for their future student role? What are the pros and cons of such preparation? Look at the curriculum for kindergarten and the first few grades in your own school district. Emphasizing math and reading in preschool and kindergarten classes is becoming more common in some school districts. It is not without controversy, however. Some suggest that emphasis is warranted in order to help students learn math and reading skills that will be needed throughout school and in the world of work. This will also help school districts improve their accountability through test performance. Others argue that learning is becoming too structured to be enjoyable or effective and that students are being taught only to focus on performance and test taking. Students learn student incivility or lack of sincere concern for politeness and consideration of others is taught in kindergarten through 12th grades through the “what is on the test” mentality modeled by teachers. Students are taught to accept routinized, meaningless information in order to perform well on tests. And they are experiencing the stress felt by teachers and school districts focused on test scores and taught that their worth comes from their test scores. Genuine interest, an appreciation of the process of learning, and valuing others are important components of success in the workplace that are not part of the hidden curriculum in today’s schools. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/06%3A_Middle_Childhood/6.06%3A_Learning_and_Intelligence_-_Schools_and_Testing.txt |
Now let’s turn our attention to concerns related to self-concept, the world of friendships, and family life.
Self-Concept
Children in middle childhood have a more realistic sense of self than do those in early childhood. That exaggerated sense of self as “biggest” or “smartest” or “tallest” gives way to an understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses. This can be attributed to greater experience in comparing one’s own performance with that of others and to greater cognitive flexibility. A child’s self-concept can be influenced by peers and family and the messages they send about a child’s worth. Contemporary children also receive messages from the media about how they should look and act. Movies, music videos, the internet, and advertisers can all create cultural images of what is desirable or undesirable and this too can influence a child’s self-concept.
The Tweens
Advertisers have created a new consumer group known as the “tweens”. This group spends an estimated \$51 billion dollars annually and has another \$170 billion a year spent on them (Irvine, 2006). Tweens range in age from 8 to 12 years and are characterized as sophisticated, early-maturing teenagers concerned primarily with their appearance, weight, and sexuality (“The ‘Tween Market'” Media Awareness Network, 2007). Tweens are primarily targeted as consumers of media, clothing, and products that make them look “cool” and feel independent. For example, attitude t-shirts have been very popular among female tweens for the past several years and the slogans on these shirts reflect what might be considered “cool”. Here are a few found in a national retail clothing store that focuses on fashion for tweens.
• Your boyfriend gave me this shirt.
• I live to shop
• It’s all about me
• You wish
In general, toys are not marketed to this age group as they once were. However, some toys designed to appeal to slightly younger children tend to sexualize children (Harmanci, 2006). For an example of such sexy children’s dolls, go to www.bratz.com. Jean Kilbourne, a noted expert on the impact of advertising on self-image, responds to the promotion of such products as examples of how “marketers are hijacking our children’s sexuality” at the expense of childhood (Squire, 2006).
Sexual Abuse in Middle Childhood
Being sexually abused as a child can have a powerful impact on self-concept. Childhood sexual abuse is defined as any sexual contact between a child and an adult or a much older child. Incest refers to sexual contact between a child and family members. In each of these cases, the child is exploited by an older person without regard for the child’s developmental immaturity and inability to understand the sexual behavior (Steele, 1986). The concept of false self-training (Davis, 1999) refers to holding a child to adult standards while denying the child’s developmental needs. Sexual abuse is just one example of false self-training. Children are held to adult standards of desirableness and sexuality while their level of cognitive, psychological, and emotional immaturity is ignored. Consider how confusing it might be for a 9 year old girl who has physically matured early to be thought of as a potential sex partner. Her cognitive, psychological, and emotional state do not equip her to make decisions about sexuality or, perhaps, to know that she can say no to sexual advances. She may feel like a 9 year old in all ways and be embarrassed and ashamed of her physical development. Girls who mature early have problems with low self-esteem because of the failure of others (family members, teachers, ministers, peers, advertisers, and others) to recognize and respect their developmental needs. Overall, youth are more likely to be victimized because they do not have control over their contact with offenders (parents, babysitters, etc.) and have no means of escape (Finkelhor and Dzuiba-Leatherman, in Davis, 1999).
Researchers estimate that 1 out of 4 girls and one out of 10 boys has been sexually abused (Valente, 2005). The median age for sexual abuse is 8 or 9 years for both boys and girls (Finkelhor et. al. 1990). Most boys and girls are sexually abused by a male. Although rates of sexual abuse are higher for girls than for boys, boys may be less likely to report abuse because of the cultural expectation that boys should be able to take care of themselves and because of the stigma attached to homosexual encounters (Finkelhor et. al. 1990). Girls are more likely to be abused by family member and boys by strangers. Sexual abuse can create feelings of self-blame, betrayal, and feelings of shame and guilt (Valente, 2005). Sexual abuse is particularly damaging when the perpetrator is someone the child trusts and may lead to depression, anxiety, problems with intimacy, and suicide (Valente, 2005). The topic of the sexualization of girls in media and society was of chief concern by the American Psychological Association in 2007 and their findings and recommendations to reduce this problem can be accessed here.
Industry vs. Inferiority
According to Erikson, children in middle childhood are very busy or industrious. They are constantly doing, planning, playing, getting together with friends, achieving. This is a very active time and a time when they are gaining a sense of how they measure up when compared with friends. Erikson believed that if these industrious children can be successful in their endeavors, they will get a sense of confidence for future challenges. If not, a sense of inferiority can be particularly haunting during middle childhood.
The Society of Children
Friendships take on new importance as judges of one’s worth, competence, and attractiveness. Friendships provide the opportunity for learning social skills such as how to communicate with others and how to negotiate differences. Children get ideas from one another about how to perform certain tasks, how to gain popularity, what to wear, say, and listen to, and how to act. This society of children marks a transition from a life focused on the family to a life concerned with peers. Peers play a key role in a child’s self-esteem at this age as any parent who has tried to console a rejected child will tell you. No matter how complimentary and encouraging the parent may be, being rejected by friends can only be remedied by renewed acceptance.
Peer Relationships: Most children want to be liked and accepted by their friends. Some popular children are nice and have good social skills. These popular-prosocial children tend to do well in school and are cooperative and friendly. Popular-antisocial children may gain popularity by acting tough or spreading rumors about others (Cillessen & Mayeux, 2004). Rejected children are sometimes excluded because they are shy and withdrawn. The withdrawn-rejected children are easy targets for bullies because they are unlikely to retaliate when belittled (Boulton, 1999). Other rejected children are ostracized because they are aggressive, loud, and confrontational. The aggressive-rejected children may be acting out of a feeling of insecurity. Unfortunately, their fear of rejection only leads to behavior that brings further rejection from other children. Children who are not accepted are more likely to experience conflict, lack confidence, and have trouble adjusting.
Family Life
During middle childhood, children spend less time with parents and more time with peers. And parents may have to modify their approach to parenting to accommodate the child’s growing independence. Using reason and engaging in joint decision-making whenever possible may be the most effective approach (Berk, 2007). However, Asian-American, African-American, and Mexican-American parents are more likely than European-Americans to use an authoritarian style of parenting. This authoritarian style of parenting that using strict discipline and focuses on obedience is also tempered with acceptance and warmth on the part of the parents. And children raised in this manner tend to be confident, successful and happy (Chao, 2001; Stewart and Bond, 2002).
Family Tasks
One of the ways to assess the quality of family life is to consider the tasks of families.
Berger (2005) lists five family functions:
1. Providing food, clothing and shelter
2. Encouraging Learning
3. Developing self-esteem
4. Nurturing friendships with peers
5. Providing harmony and stability
Notice that in addition to providing food, shelter, and clothing, families are responsible for helping the child learn, relate to others, and have a confident sense of self. The family provides a harmonious and stable environment for living. A good home environment is one in which the child’s physical, cognitive, emotional, and social needs are adequately met. Sometimes families emphasize physical needs, but ignore cognitive or emotional needs. Other times, families pay close attention to physical needs and academic requirements, but may fail to nurture the child’s friendships with peers or guide the child toward developing healthy relationships. Parents might want to consider how it feels to live in the household. Is it stressful and conflict-ridden? Is it a place where family members enjoy being?
Family Change
Divorce: A lot of attention has been given to the impact of divorce on the life of children. The assumption has been that divorce has a strong, negative impact on the child and that single-parent families are deficient in some way. However, 75-80 percent of children and adults who experience divorce suffer no long term effects (Hetherington & Kelly, 2002). Children of divorce and children who have not experienced divorce are more similar than different (Hetherington & Kelly, 2002).
Mintz (2004) suggests that the alarmist view of divorce was due in part to the newness of divorce when rates in the United States began to climb in the late 1970s. Adults reacting to the change grew up in the 1950s when rates were low. As divorce has become more common and there is less stigma associated with divorce, this view has changed somewhat. Social scientists have operated from the divorce as deficit model emphasizing the problems of being from a “broken home” (Seccombe &Warner, 2004). But more recently, a more objective view of divorce, repartnering, and remarriage indicates that divorce, remarriage and life in stepfamilies can have a variety of effects. The exaggeration of the negative consequences of divorce has left the majority of those who do well hidden and subjected them to unnecessary stigma and social disapproval (Hetherington & Kelly, 2002).
The tasks of families listed above are functions that can be fulfilled in a variety of family types-not just intact, two-parent households. Harmony and stability can be achieved in many family forms and when it is disrupted, either through divorce, or efforts to blend families, or any other circumstances, the child suffers (Hetherington & Kelly, 2002).
Factors Affecting the Impact of Divorce
As you look at the consequences (both pro and con) of divorce and remarriage on children, keep these family functions in mind. Some negative consequences are a result of financial hardship rather than divorce per se (Drexler, 2005). Some positive consequences reflect improvements in meeting these functions. For instance, we have learned that a positive self-esteem comes in part from a belief in the self and one’s abilities rather than merely being complimented by others. In single-parent homes, children may be given more opportunity to discover their own abilities and gain independence that fosters self-esteem. If divorce leads to fighting between the parents and the child is included in these arguments, the self-esteem may suffer.
The impact of divorce on children depends on a number of factors. The degree of conflict prior to the divorce plays a role. If the divorce means a reduction in tensions, the child may feel relief. If the parents have kept their conflicts hidden, the announcement of a divorce can come as a shock and be met with enormous resentment. Another factor that has an great impact on the child concerns financial hardships they may suffer, especially if financial support is inadequate. Another difficult situation for children of divorce is the position they are put into if the parents continue to argue and fight-especially if they bring the children into those arguments.
Short-term consequences: In roughly the first year following divorce, children may exhibit some of these short-term effects:
1. Grief over losses suffered. The child will grieve the loss of the parent they no longer see as frequently. The child may also grieve about other family members that are no longer available. Grief sometimes comes in the form of sadness, but it can also be experienced as anger or withdrawal. Preschool-aged boys may act out aggressively while the same aged girls may become more quiet and withdrawn. Older children may feel depressed.
2. Reduced Standard of Living. Very often, divorce means a change in the amount of money coming into the household. Children experience in new constraints on spending or entertainment. School-aged children, especially, may notice that they can no longer have toys, clothing or other items to which they’ve grown accustomed. Or it may mean that there is less eating out or being able to afford satellite television, and so on. The custodial parent may experience stress at not being able to rely on child support payments or having the same level of income as before. This can affect decisions regarding healthcare, vacations, rents, mortgages and other expenditures. And the stress can result in less happiness and relaxation in the home. The parent who has to take on more work may also be less available to the children.
3. Adjusting to Transitions. Children may also have to adjust to other changes accompanying a divorce. The divorce might mean moving to a new home and changing schools or friends. It might mean leaving a neighborhood that has meant a lot to them as well.
Long-Term consequences: Here are some effects are found after the first year.
1. Economic/Occupational Status. One of the most commonly cited long-term effects of divorce is that children of divorce may have lower levels of education or occupational status. This may be a consequence of lower income and resources for funding education rather than to divorce per se. In those households where economic hardship does not occur, there may be no impact on economic status (Drexler, 2005).
2. Improved Relationships with the Custodial Parent (usually the mother): In the United States and Canada, children reside with the mother in 88 percent of single-parent households (Berk, 2007). Children from single-parent families talk to their mothers more often than children of two-parent families (McLanahan and Sandefur, 1994). Most children of divorce lead happy, well-adjusted lives and develop stronger, positive relationships with their custodial parent (Seccombe and Warner, 2004). In a study of college-age respondents, Arditti (1999) found that increasing closeness and a movement toward more democratic parenting styles was experienced. Others have also found that relationships between mothers and children become closer and stronger (Guttman, 1993) and suggest that greater equality and less rigid parenting is beneficial after divorce (Steward, Copeland, Chester, Malley, and Barenbaum, 1997).
3. Greater emotional independence in sons. Drexler (2005) notes that sons who are raised by mothers only develop an emotional sensitivity to others that is beneficial in relationships.
4. Feeling more anxious in their own love relationships. Children of divorce may feel more anxious about their own relationships as adults. This may reflect a fear of divorce if things go wrong, or it may be a result of setting higher expectations for their own relationships.
5. Adjustment of the custodial parent. Furstenberg and Cherlin (1991) believe that the primary factor influencing the way that children adjust to divorce is the way the custodial parent adjusts to the divorce. If that parent is adjusting well, the children will benefit. This may explain a good deal of the variation we find in children of divorce. Adults going though divorce should consider good self-care as beneficial to the children-not as self-indulgent.
Here are some tips for taking care of the self during divorce:
1. Take care of your own mental health. Don’t be a martyr. Do what is necessary to heal.
2. Allow children to grieve and express their feelings without becoming defensive. Give the child the freedom to express feelings and be supportive and neutral as they voice their emotions over the loss.
3. Try to have an amicable relationship with the ex-spouse and keep the children’s best interests in mind.
4. Do not put-down or badmouth the ex-spouse. This puts the child in a very uncomfortable position. You don’t have to hide the truth from them either, but they will uncover the truth on their own. Be neutral. Children want to love their parents, regardless of the circumstances.
5. Focus on establishing a comfortable, consistent healthy environment for the children as they adjust.
Repartnering
Repartnering refers to forming new, intimate relationships after divorce. This includes dating, cohabitation and remarriage.
Parental considerations about dating: Dating as a single parent can pose certain challenges. Time and money are considerations. A single mother may not have time for dating and may not have the money needed for child-care while she is out. Children can also resent a parent taking time away to date. Parents may struggle with whether or not to introduce a date to the children or to demonstrate affection in front of the children. When a dating relationship becomes serious, a boyfriend or girlfriend might expect the parent to prove their concern for them above the children. This puts a parent in a very uncomfortable situation. Sometimes, this vying for attention does not occur until the couple begins to consider sharing a long-term relationship.
Parental considerations about cohabitation: Having time, money and resources to date can be difficult. And having privacy for a dating relationship can also be problematic. Divorced parents may cohabit as a result. Cohabitation involves living together in a sexually intimate relationship without being married. This can be difficult for children to adjust to because cohabiting relationships in the United States tend to be short-lived. About 50 percent last less than 2 years (Brown, 2000). The child who starts a relationship with the parent’s live-in partner may have to sever this relationship later. And even in long-term cohabiting relationships, once it’s over, continued contact with the child is rare.
Is remarriage more difficult than divorce? The remarriage of a parent may be a more difficult adjustment for a child than the divorce of a parent (Seccombe & Warner, 2004). Parents and children typically have different ideas of how the stepparent should act. Parents and stepparents are more likely to see the stepparent’s role as that of parent. A more democratic style of parenting may become more authoritarian after a parent remarries. And biological parents are more likely to continue to be involved with their children jointly when neither parent has remarried. They are least likely to jointly be involved if the father has remarried and the mother has not.
Characteristics of Stepfamilies
About 60 percent of divorced parents remarry within a few years (Berk, 2007). Largely due to high rates of divorce and remarriage, we have seen the number of stepfamilies in America grow considerably in the last 20 years although rates of remarriage are declining (Seccombe & Warner, 2004). Stepfamilies are not new. In the 1700-1800s there were many stepfamilies, but they were created because someone died and remarried. Most stepfamilies today are a result of divorce and remarriage. And such origins lead to new considerations. Stepfamilies are different from intact families and more complex in a number of ways that can pose unique challenges to those who seek to form successful stepfamily relationships (Visher & Visher, 1985). Stepfamilies are also known as blended families and stepchildren as “bonus children” by social scientists interested in emphasizing the positive qualities of these families.
1. Stepfamilies have a biological parent outside the stepfamily and a same sex adult in the family as natural parent. This can lead to animosity on part of a rejecting child. This can also lead to confusion on part of stepparent as to what their role is within the family.
2. Child may be a part of two households, each with different rules.
3. Members may not be as sure that others care and may require more demonstrations of affection for reassurance. For example, stepparents expect more gratitude and acknowledgment from the stepchild than they would with a biological child. Stepchildren experience more uncertainty/insecurity in their relationship with the parent and fear the parents will see them as sources of tension. And stepparents may feel guilty for a lack of feelings they may initially have toward their partner’s children. Children who are required to respond to the parent’s new mate as though they were the child’s “real” parent often react with hostility, rebellion, or withdrawal. Especially if there has not been time for the relationship to develop.
4. Stepfamilies are born of loss. Members may have lost a home, a neighborhood, family members or at least their dream of how they thought life would be. These losses must be acknowledged and mourned. Remarriage quickly after a divorce makes expressing grief more difficult. Family members are looking for signs that all is well at the same time that members are experiencing grief over losses.
5. Stepfamilies are structurally more complex. There are lost of triangles and lots of ways to divide and conquer the new couple.
6. Sexual attractions are more common in stepfamilies. Members have not grown up together and sexual attractions need to be understood, and controlled. Also a new couple may need to tone down sexual displays when around the children (can bring on jealousy, etc.) until there is greater acceptance of the new partner.
Sociologist Andrew Cherlin suggests that one reason people remarry is because divorce is so socially awkward. There are no clear guidelines for family/friends, how to treat divorcees, etc. As a result, people remarry to avoid this “displacement.” The problem is that remarriage is similarly ill-defined. This is reflected in the lack of language to support the institution of remarriage. What does one call their stepparent? Who is included when thinking of “the family”? For couples with joint custody, where is “home”? And there are few guidelines about how ex-spouses and new spouses or other kin should interact. This is especially an issue when children are involved
In light of this incompleteness, here are some tips for those in stepfamilies. Most of these tips are focused on the stepparent. These come from an article entitled “The Ten Commandments of Step parenting” by Turnbull and Turnbull.
1. Provide neutral territory. If there is a way to do so, relocate the new family in a new, more neutral home. Houses have histories and there are many memories attached to family homes. This territoriality can cause resentments.
2. Don’t try to fit a preconceived role. Stepparents need to realize that they cannot just walk into a situation and expect to fill a role. They need to stay in tuned with what works in this new family rather than being dogmatic about their new role.
3. Set limits and enforce them. Don’t allow children to take advantage of the parent’s guilt or adjustment by trying to gain special privileges as a result of the change. Limits provide security, especially if they are reasonable limits.
4. Allow an outlet for feelings by the children for their natural parent. This tip is for the natural parent. Avoid the temptation to “encourage” the child to go against your ex-spouse. Instead, remain neutral when comments are made.
5. Expect ambivalence, not instant love. Stepparents need to realize that their acceptance has to be earned, and sometimes it is long in coming. The relationship has to be given time to grow. Trust has to be established. One day they may be loved, the next, hated. Adjustment takes time.
Developmental Stages of Step-famililes
Stepfamilies go through periods of adjustments and developmental stages that take about 7 years for completion (Papernow, 1993). The early stages of stepfamily adjustment include periods of fantasy in which members may hope for immediate acceptance. This is followed by the immersion stage in which children have to adjust to their parent’s date being transformed into a new stepfather or stepmother. This acceptance can be accompanied by a sense of betrayal toward the natural parent on the part of the children. The awareness stage involves members beginning to become aware of how they feel in the family and taking steps to map our their territory. Children may begin to feel as if they’ve been set aside for other family members and the couple may begin to focus their attention toward one another. Biological parents may feel resentful.
The middle stages include mobilization, in which family members begin to recognize their differences. Stepparents may be less interested in pleasing family members and more interested in taking a stand and being respected as family members. Children may start to voice their frustrations at being pulled in different directions by biological and stepparents. The next step is that of taking action. Now step-couples and stepparents begin to reorganize the family based on more realistic expectations and understandings of how members feel.
The later stages include contact between stepfamily members that is more intimate and genuine. A clearer role for the stepparent emerges. Finally, the stepfamily seems to have more security and stability than ever before.
Conclusions
Middle childhood is a complex period of the life span. New understandings and social situations bring variety to children’s lives as they form new strategies for the world ahead. We next turn our attention to adolescents. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/06%3A_Middle_Childhood/6.07%3A_Psychosocial_Development.txt |
Lecture Transcript
Now we turn our attention to middle childhood. This is the age when many children begin formal schooling. It is approximately 6 to 11 years of age.
First, let’s explore physical development during this time.
Middle childhood has been called the “golden age” of childhood. Overall, children are relatively healthy during this period. Growth rates slow and children start gaining about 5-7 pounds in weight and 2 inches in height each year. Many children begin to slim down as their torsos become longer. A child at this age can have strong muscles and increased lung capacity to enable them to play for long periods of time.
This is the age when many children begin to play organized sports. Their bodies are well-equipped for such activities. However, it’s been said that sports are best for children if their parents stay home. This is because parents can have the tendency to focus primarily on competition and less on instilling enjoyment of the game. This can lead to tension, hostility, and become a source of discouragement for a child who doesn’t always win. Unfortunately, such children may give up and become less active or experience burn-out at a young age.
Listen to the story entitled “College Sports Excesses Seep into High School” by Frank DeFord, the editor of Sports Illustrated magazine for a humorous look at the adult mentality applied to sports. We know that unstructured play offers children the ability to be active without penalty and to be creative and improve social skills in ways that structured sports cannot.
Childhood obesity has become an increasing problem in the United States, Great Britain, and other parts of the world. It’s estimated that between 16 and 33 percent of American children are obese. This doesn’t mean that they are a few pounds overweight. It is defined as being at least 20 percent over ideal weight. Childhood obesity has tripled in the last 30 years. Obesity is defined as having a body mass index greater than or equal to the 95th percentile for sex and age. Children who suffer from obesity can be the subject of ridicule, bullying, cardiovascular disease, bone, joint problems, and type 2 diabetes.
The Center for Disease Control recommends that schools examine their nutrition on school menus, reevaluate the offerings of food and beverages outside school lunches, and increase physical activity to begin to combat this problem. Here is a copy of the school lunches served at my children’s school a few years ago. A popular meal was served on Wednesdays each week. It consisted on chicken nuggets, a roll, green beans or mashed potatoes.
Let’s examine the nutritional breakdown of this meal:
Here we find some alarming information. This menu, which fell within state nutritional guidelines, consisted of 1181 calories, 2878 mg of sodium, 145 mg of cholesterol, 39.33 grams of fat (of which 20.04 grams were saturated fat), and 151 grams of carbohydrates. Ice cream, cookies, chips, and sodas were available at the end of the line for additional purchase. School lunches vary from state to state and school district to school district. Parents need to be aware of what is served within the schools as well as to consider other sources of high fat, high starch foods their children are consuming.
Now we will explore cognitive development in middle childhood.
Piaget’s third stage, the concrete operational stage of intelligence, involves the ability to understand the physical or tangible world. Children can now classify objects in many ways. They recognized that objects retain their identity, even if modified (such as a scrambled egg is still an egg), and recognize the identity held by numbers. It becomes easier for school aged children to reverse a set of operations in math or to understand that moving backward in a set of procedures can bring one back to the beginning point. Reciprocity is also understood. A child recognizes that the water level rises if a container of water is narrow and falls if water is placed in a wide, shallow container.
Information processing theory is a classic theory of memory that uses the analogy of a computer to help us understand how memories are built. The first location for information to enter is through the senses. Seeing, hearing, touching, or smelling a stimulus is the first step to forming a memory. Most of what comes into our sensory register is there for only a split second and then is either dismissed or moved to our working or short term memory. Short term or working memory has a limited capacity of about 9 to 11 pieces of information at a time. Information must be rehearsed to be kept alive in our short term memories. The long term or knowledge base consists of information that we have stored and can access when needed. This storage area has a seemingly unlimited capacity. The key to being able to access what is in your long-term memory is making sure that it is stored in a meaningful ways children enter school, they begin to process information more quickly than before. This is because they can find links and meaning in new information and store it more easily. Schooling often involves learning new strategies to help with academic tasks.
Vocabulary continues to increase throughout middle childhood at the rate of about 20 new words each day. A 5th grader knows an estimated 40,000 words. And they begin to understand the meanings of words and plays on words. Grammar is more easily learned and rules of grammar are applied more flexibly.
Lawrence Kohlberg applied Piaget’s principles to moral decision-making. In the preconventional stage, moral decision-making is based on whether an action brings direct, personal benefit such as reward or punishment. Conventional moral reasoning is based on the opinions of others about the act. Still, personal benefit, perhaps in the form of being viewed as right or good is the basis for a decision to act. Post conventional moral reasoning is based on universal, moral, or ethical principles or the good of others rather than self.
School brings assessment of a child’s performance and developmental problems can be recognized once a child enters this setting. Diagnosing and labeling a child with a developmental problem can help parents, teachers, and others to form a treatment plan to assist the child. But labels can be inaccurate and misapplied. Nevertheless, the label can become part of the child’s self-assessment and the child may begin to act accordingly. For example, a child labeled as a ‘slow-learner’ may lose confidence in their abilities and feel self-conscious about the label. This can get in the way of learning and thereby create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Autism spectrum disorders range from pervasive developmental delay to Asperger’s syndrome. Children vary in the degree to which they exhibit autistic symptoms. The word autism means ‘selfism’ or a focus on an internal world. Children with autism spectrum disorders may lack motivation to learn language, be sensitive to detail, prefer consistency, and lack or be delayed in developing social emotions such as embarrassment or guilt. A minority of children with autistic spectrum disorders have unusual talents. These talents or strong interests are more characteristic of Asperger’s syndrome.
Consider this definition of learning disability: “A measured discrepancy between expected learning and actual accomplishment in a particular academic area.” This definition calls our attention to the academic standards we set for children and the labeling process to which they may be subjected. By this definition, raising standards can result in an increase of students who are considered learning disabled.
Learning difficulties are specific to academic skills and include dyslexia, dyscalcula, and attention deficit disorder. There are numerous conditions that can lead to these difficulties.
Schooling brings assessment of intellectual skills. Some assessments are achievement tests. These are designed to measure what a child has learned and are administered at the end of a course of study. Aptitude tests are designed to measure a child’s potential to learn and may be used as entrance requirements. Intelligence tests are one type of aptitude test. However, intelligence tests are not uniformly administered. They are more likely used as part of a clinical assessment in situations in which a child needs special attention or instruction.
Intelligence tests do not measure all types of talents or intelligences. Howard Gardner suggests that there are many talents abilities that can set a person apart and help them be successful that go beyond academic intelligence. His domains of intelligences include logical-mathematical, linguistic, and spatial intelligence, which are the kinds of abilities measured by intelligence tests. Other intelligences include bodily-kinesthetic intelligence which focuses on movement, strength, accuracy, and endurance; musical intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, or knowledge of one’s own motivations and internal psychological state; interpersonal intelligence, or the ability to read others accurately, negotiate, communicate and exhibit other interpersonal skills; naturalistic intelligence such as the knowledge of climate, crops, or animals vital to success in farming or herding; and existential intelligence that involves spiritual or philosophical understandings that address life’s bigger questions about existence and purpose.
Robert Sternberg offers another model of intelligence that takes us outside academic intelligence. His triarchic theory of intelligence includes academic intelligence or “book smarts” which is the type of intelligence IQ tests measure. But also considered key are creative or experiential intelligence and practical intelligence. Creative intelligence is the ability to use what has been learned or to put knowledge into experience. Practical intelligence or “street smarts” also referred to as common sense is the ability to understand what is called for in a situation and to act accordingly. These intelligences are important for success in life
Let’s take a different look at school and the world of school as experienced by parents and students. Schools often express a desire for family involvement. Some families bring qualities to the school setting that can influence the child’s experience. These qualities, such as financial support for the school or community status are referred to as family capital. A well-known member of the community or a parent who offers time, money, and a supportive attitude toward the teacher may be receive additional resources or guidance for their child. Have you ever asked a child about their day at school? Chances are, the answer focused on the social life at school. Educator Peter McLaren observed and recorded the amount of time students spent in various states throughout the school day. The student state is a state in which the students is on task, compliant, and focused on teacher requests. About 298 minutes were spent in the student state. This is the state preferred by teachers. But many students preferred to spend time in the street corner state. This is a state in which the child is able to socialize with other children and to act as they might when not in school. Children try to maximize this stage by taking longer in the halls when going from one classroom to another or by moving more slowly when getting out books or other materials. The home state occurs when family members are at the school. In this state, children are subjected to a different set of rules than those set by the school. For example, a child may get to sit with their parents or leave a class early as a result.
All schools have a formal curriculum or set of courses and objectives that are clearly written down. But schools also teach powerful lessons referred to as the “hidden curriculum.”These lessons include gender roles, competition, preferences based on social class, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. The hidden curriculum is not directly states, yet students receive indirect messages about the believed superiority or inferiority of these groups. For example, a teacher may ignore insults made toward a student for being gay even if the school has an official policy against discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Psychosocial development in middle childhood.
Entering school often means entering the society or culture of children. Children establish a language, set of rules, behaviors, and roles for one another. This society of children can serve as a living laboratory for learning and practicing social skills such as negotiation, communication, and problem-solving.Think about the children you remember from your early grades in school. You may remember some children who were known by many and were well-liked. These popular-prosocial children are highly visible and seem to have the support and the encouragement of the school. Some children are popular, but their popularity comes from altercations with other students and rebelliousness within the school. It may be hard for these children to change their social behavior as it has become part of their persona and popularity. Some children are withdrawn and suffer the rejection of other children. They may have some qualities that make them a safe target for bullying such as being poor, having a physical challenge, or being shy. Aggressive-rejected children are rebellious and have altercations with other students, but this doesn’t gain them popularity? Why not? Perhaps it is because they are not physically attractive or are poor.
School-aged children are forming a sense of self or self-concept. This begins earlier in life, but continues to take shape in middle childhood. In societies where media is powerful, children may develop evaluation themselves based on images or products in television shows, commercials, or on the internet. Erikson believed that these children struggle with industry, a stage of being busy and learning about one’s capabilities, versus inferiority. To what extent might a child feel inferior in these comparisons?
To what extent are developmental needs addressed in the world that we establish for children? Many of the activities and products created for children may really be designed to meet adult needs rather than those of children. Think, for example, of the elaborate birthday party given a 6 year old that is really an effort to establish parental status in the neighborhood. False self-training refers to children being held to external, adult standards while having their own developmental needs denied. One area in which children are held to adult standards is in the case of sexual abuse.
Child sexual abuse is a sexual act with a child that is performed by an adult or an older child. The developmental immaturity of the child is ignored and needs are disregarded. For example, a young girl who begins physical maturation early may be considered to be sexual although emotionally and cognitively she is not equipped to understand the sexual behavior and its implications.
David Finkelhor describes the long term consequences of childhood sexual abuse. Traumatic sexualization refers to the way in which a child who is sexually abused may learn to use sexuality and seduction as a major way to communicate with others. The person may devalue other aspects of who they are and have difficulty thinking of sex and love as part of a relationship. A sense of betrayal and lack of trust is particularly strong in cases of incest. The child learned that secrecy and denial of the experience is expected and that those who are supposed to care for you can also be those who abuse you. A healthy understand of an appropriate parent/child relationship is lacking as trust is undermined. A person may also experience a sense of powerlessness or an inability to set limits with others. This may mean being involved in other abusive relationships or in being unable to say no to demands on time or money or other resources.
Finally, the person who is abused may feel stigmatized or looked down upon by others. This makes it difficult for the person to ask for help or find support or to be taken seriously in a compassionate way.
Next, let’s turn our attention to family structure and relationships. There are a variety of family forms, from two-parent intact families, to single-parent families, to cohabiting families. Which structure is best? One way to address this question is to understand the tasks performed by families. Family tasks include providing food, clothing, and shelter for children, encouraging learning, developing self-esteem in children, nurturing their friendships, and providing a harmonious and stable environment for family life.
Divorce rates in the United States began to rise in the 1970s and increased steadily until it peaked in the early 1980s. This has been accompanied by great concern over the impact divorce has on children. Divorce doesn’t affect all children in the same way. The impact of divorce on children depends on the degree of conflict prior to divorce, the amount of financial hardship experienced by the children, the actions of the divorcing couple toward the child, and the level of adjustment of the custodial parent.
Judith Wallerstein outlines some short-term consequences for children following divorce. These include a feeling of loss or grief over family members who are no longer part of the child’s life, a reduced standard of living, adjusting to transitions such as changing schools or moving, and experiencing relief from conflict that may have been experienced prior to the divorce.
Adults who experienced divorce as children may have greater anxiety about their own relationships. Or they may have unrealistically high expectations for a partner-seeking the perfect mate to avoid future divorce. Of course, it’s hard to find perfection. Peggy Drexler suggests that many of the long term consequences for children are tied to financial hardship rather than divorce. For instance, there may have been less financial support for schooling that then translates to lower occupational attainment following divorce.
Newer research on the impact of divorce on children has focused on some positive consequences. Hetherington found that most children of divorce lead happy, well-adjusted lives. These well-adjusted adults went unnoticed when researchers focused solely on looking at people with problems and used hindsight to suggest that their problems were due to divorce. Many daughters find that their communication improves with their mothers, typically their custodial parent. Parenting becomes more democratic and children have a greater role in family decision-making as they mature. Drexler found that sons felt freer to escape negative role models if their mothers were in dating relationships than if those negative models were marital partners. And sons being raised without fathers showed more emotional independence and freedom to express emotions being in a single-parent family.
The psychological health of the parents, especially the parent with whom the child spends the most time, is key to helping children adjust. Here are a few tips for parents going through divorce. One is to take care of your own mental health. Find others that can offer support and understanding. Allow children to express their grief over losses. Cultivate a healthy, conflict-free relationship with the other parent for the sake of the children. And try to establish a home environment that is healthy, positive, and comfortable.
Repartnering refers to parents developing new relationships after breaking up. Remarriage is one type of repartnering. Sometimes, repartnering can be an even harder transition for children than was the divorce of their parents. Parenting that may have become more democratic in a single-parent household, may now become more authoritarian when a new partner becomes part of the family. This can be a difficult adjustment for children. Step-parents may want to take on parental roles right away, but children may want to establish friendship first.
Repartnering can also mean changes in the amount of time and attention biological parents show their children. The greatest involvement with children may occur before either parent has established a new relationship. The least involvement seems to occur when the father has established a new relationship but the mother has not. The father may be spending more time with his new partner and children. And there may be greater tension between mother and step-mother than between father and step-father due to the emphasis on involvement in maternal roles.
Repartnering also brings about dating concerns. Does a parent have time and money to date? Should the parent have a new partner meet their children? If so, when? What will be their role? Should the new partner spend the night? Cohabitation is one way of repartnering. The partners live together but are not married. Cohabiting families must consider the roles of partners, the financial contributions to the family and to members outside the household, and the effects of breaking up on children who may now have to sever ties they’ve established.
Stepfamilies or blended families have been increasing since divorce rates began to rise. But stepfamilies were also common in western society in the 1700s and 1800s. The stepfamilies of today, however, are typically created through divorce and remarriage rather than due to the death of a spouse. Sociologist Andrew Cherlin has described stepfamilies as an “incomplete institution” because the rules and guidelines for life in stepfamilies are unclear. Stepfamilies may experience greater difficulty than single-parent families as they try to establish new rules and roles and deal with mixed loyalties and relationships.
Stepfamilies have some characteristics that need to be considered. Stepfamilies are structurally more complex. There are more members involves and their loyalties may be divided. Many stepfamilies are established at the same time members are grieving over previous losses following divorce. Love between members of stepfamilies has to be cultivated; it cannot be assumed. The roles that stepfamily members play, whether this is a new step-parent or a non-custodial parent, are often unclear and have to be established. And sexual attractions may occur and need to be monitored. Modesty and caution when showing physical displays of affection are recommended.
This is an effort to establish some guidelines for stepfamily members. Here are a few tips. One is to establish neutral territory or routines for the new family rather than having members adjust to the previous family’s location or routines. If you are a stepparent, don’t try to fit a preconceived role. Set limits so that the new couple can establish their new relationship without unnecessary interference or efforts to sabotage the relationship by the children. Respect past loyalties. Recognize that your partner and their children have a past that should be recognized and respected. If a child is upset with the other parent, be neutral about it. Don’t get in the middle of this or you may be resented later for interfering or speaking badly about their parent. If you are a stepparent, don’t expect instant love. Stepfamilies go through developmental stages, according to Papernow. This process can take up to 7 years. Fantasy about the perfect family, being immersed in the new relationships, and ‘mapping out’ the new territory are found in the early stages of stepfamily development.
In the middle stages, members begin to recognize their differences and express conflicts more openly. Stepparents may begin to take a stand on their role and position in the family. In later stages, a lot of the hard work of establishing the family’s roles and rules has been accomplished and the members make closer contact with one another. Acceptance of one another and the family is found. Many stepfamilies, however, find it difficult to endure long enough to complete theses stages. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/06%3A_Middle_Childhood/6.08%3A_Middle_Childhood.txt |
Lifespan Psychology Module 6 Middle Childhood Powerpoint from Lumen Learning
6.10: Childhood
Study Guide:
1. Characterize physical growth for the first two years. Be sure to include a description of the ways the brain develops.
2. Describe the newborn’s sensory abilities.
3. Give examples of gross and fine motor skills during the first two years. Then consider the kinds of motor skills being developed during preschool and middle childhood.
4. What are some nutritional concerns during infancy? What is marasmus? Kwashiorkor?
5. Characterize physical growth in early childhood.
6. What are some nutritional concerns during the preschool (play) years? What happens to appetite from ages 2-6? What are the chief concerns during middle childhood in terms of nutrition?
7. Explain Piaget’s theory of cognitive development for childhood. Include the substages of sensorimotor intelligence, preoperational intelligence (including animism, egocentrism, centration), and concrete operational intelligence (including identity, reversibility, conservation). Remember assimilation and accommodation.
8. Use Erikson’s theory to explain psychosocial development from birth through childhood. Four stages or ‘crises’ comprise childhood (trust vs. mistrust etc.)
9. Explain language development from birth through childhood. Include ideas such as babbling, first words, holophrasic speech, overregularization, etc.
10. Recall Vygotsky’s theory of sociocultural development. What is private speech?
11. Explain theories of language development.
12. Describe emotional development in the first year. Also, what is separation anxiety? Stranger wariness? When do these occur?
13. What is self-awareness? Theory of mind? When do these changes occur? Why are these significant for development?
14. Define temperament and goodness of fit.
15. Contrast styles of attachment.
16. Explain Baumrind’s parenting styles. Describe Lemasters and Defrain’s model. What impact does culture play in parenting styles?
17. What is the society/culture of children?
18. Define family capital. What is meant by the “hidden curriculum” in school?
19. Contrast theories of self from Cooley and Mead.
20. Discuss the impact of stress on development.
21. What is false self-training?
22. Summarize theories of gender role development.
23. Describe the developmental stages of stepfamilies.
24. What conclusion is made when examining family structure (intact, single-parent, etc.) and the impact structure has on children? What helps children make their way through stressful situations?
25. Explain Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.
26. Compare aptitude and achievement tests. Explain Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligences.
27. Characterize autism spectrum disorders and ADHD.
28. Review your notes over film/audio clips.
6.11: Unit 2 Exam
1. The average newborn doubles her birthweight in:
1. the first year.
2. four months.
3. six months.
4. two months.
2. The slowest-to-mature brain lobe is the:
1. striate cortex.
2. parietal cortex.
3. frontal cortex.
4. temporal cortex.
3. In the process of transient exuberance, great brain growth is seen, especially in the area of the:
1. dendrites.
2. axons.
3. nucleus.
4. axon terminals.
4. The sense that is the least developed at birth is:
1. vision.
2. taste.
3. smell.
4. hearing.
5. The difference between gross and fine motor skills is whether they:
1. are controllable.
2. involve mental or physical skills.
3. are due more to nature or nurture.
4. involve bigger or smaller muscles.
6. Unusual swelling of a toddler's face and abdomen and thin, colorless hair are symptoms of:
1. rickets.
2. marasmus.
3. hypoglycemia.
4. kwashiorkor.
7. During the sensorimotor stage, the main task is to:
1. learn to use language to express sensations.
2. think logically and critically.
3. huse senses and motor skills to understand the world.
4. think of past and future events.
8. Active experimentation is part of _______ in Piaget's substages of sensorimotor intelligence.
1. stage six.
2. stage three.
3. stage four.
4. stage five.
9. Babbling:
1. is found only in infants from the Western Hemisphere.
2. precedes cooing.
3. occurs only if the infant can hear.
4. is universal.
10. On average, children begin saying recognizable words at about:
1. 24 months old.
2. 3 months old.
3. 12 months old.
4. 6 months old.
11. A match between a child's temperament and the demands of the environment is called:
1. goodness of fit.
2. synchrony.
3. organismic specificity.
4. temperamental enhancement.
12. Secure attachment makes a toddler:
1. cling to the mother.
2. willing to explore.
3. self-centered.
4. try to talk.
13. Angie does not notice when her mother leaves the day-care center and ignores her mother when she returns. Angie's behavior is:
1. insecure-resistant attachment.
2. insecure-avoidant attachment.
3. secure attachment.
4. disoriented attachment.
14. Cooley's looking-glass self helps us understand how a child:
1. establishes a body image.
2. develops a self-concept.
3. learns gender roles.
4. learns how to imitate the behavior of others.
15. The process of myelination involves:
1. bone growth.
2. parents' teaching their children.
3. nerve insulation.
4. muscle growth.
16. Family capital
1. is another term for stepfamily.
2. can be used to help one's children in school.
3. refers to financial assistance offered to families by the government.
4. typically helps families obtain better healthcare.
17. The best example of a fine motor skill is:
1. roller-skating around the block.
2. swimming across a pool.
3. using scissors to cut paper.
4. playing catch with a football.
18. Piaget called cognitive development between the ages of two and six ______ intelligence.
1. preoperational
2. egocentric
3. Symbiotic
4. operational
19. Vygotsky suggested that each individual is surrounded by a zone of:
1. proximal development.
2. distal development.
3. potentiality.
4. possibilities.
20. Preschoolers do not use private speech to:
1. review what they know.
2. communicate with those around them.
3. explain events to themselves.
4. decide what to do.
21. “I catched two mices in a trap” is an example of:
1. literal translation.
2. egocentric speech.
3. the past imperfect.
4. overregularization.
22. According to Erikson, as children develop self-awareness and realize their own mistakes, they feel:
1. shamed.
2. empowered.
3. anger.
4. guilty.
23. When parents expect unquestioning obedience from their children, their parenting pattern is:
1. authoritarian.
2. dictatorial.
3. tyrannical.
4. authoritative.
24. Aptitude tests are designed to measure:
1. capacity for divergent thinking.
2. how much has been learned.
3. potential for accomplishment.
4. verbal abilities.
25. Todd runs around the classroom, can't seem to sit still or concentrate, and is easily excited. He is most likely to be diagnosed as having:
1. a sensory deficit.
2. attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
3. mental retardation.
4. childhood schizophrenia.
26. The most devastating problem for children with autistic spectrum disorder as they grow up is their lack of:
1. social understanding.
2. motor skills.
3. intelligence.
4. imagination.
27. According to Piaget, the distinguishing characteristic of school-age children is that they are:
1. imaginative.
2. friendly.
3. logical.
4. fearless.
28. When we revamp or change our old ways of thinking because of new information, Piaget calls this:
1. assimilation.
2. imitation.
3. accommodation.
4. historical context.
29. The infant's first sensorimotor activities are:
1. anticipation.
2. first acquired adaptations.
3. active experimentation.
4. reflexes.
30. Piaget's stage six of sensorimotor intelligence is known as:
1. mental combinations.
2. interesting observations.
3. primary reactions.
4. new adaptation and anticipation.
31. Typically, stranger wariness is first noticeable at:
1. 9 months.
2. 12 months.
3. 3 months.
4. 4 months.
32. Identify Erikson's second stage of development:
1. attachment vs. self-awareness
2. autonomy vs. shame and doubt
3. synchrony vs. attachment
4. pride vs. shame
33. Which parenting style is preferred by Lemasters and DeFrain?
1. the teacher-counselor parent
2. the athletic coach
3. the pal
4. the martyr
34. Preconventional morality involves:
1. an emphasis on reward and punishment.
2. the careful consideration of all options.
3. an emphasis on laws and social order.
4. trying to gain the approval of others.
35. Lizzie is an extremely shy and anxious 8-year-old whom other children seem to dislike. She would be characterized as a(n):
1. neglected child.
2. withdrawn-rejected child.
3. controversial child.
4. aggressive-rejected child.
36. The main concern about nutrition in middle childhood in the United States is:
1. a lack of protein in the diet.
2. the lack of calories taken in by children in this age group.
3. the high number of children who are overweight or obese.
4. the consumption of too much calcium.
37. Stepfamilies reach the last stage of development:
1. after all parents have remarried other partners.
2. just prior to redivorce.
3. after the first year.
4. after about 7 years.
38. At what age do children develop a theory of mind?
1. 2 years of age
2. 12 years of age
3. 4 years of age
4. 10 years of age
39. You viewed a video in which Robin Williams helped children understand that his shoe was not alive. This illustrates:
1. the law of conservation
2. animism
3. Centration
4. egocentrism
40. You viewed a video clip about theory of mind in which researchers found that children who develop a theory of mind early are more likely to:
1. have an unusually large corpus callosum.
2. feel anxiety about what other children may be thinking of them.
3. have a wild imagination that can get them into trouble.
4. are more popular with other children.
41. An enduring emotional bond between people is known as:
1. unionization.
2. synchrony.
3. attachment.
4. love.
42. A sign of secure attachment is:
1. refusing to let go of the caregiver's arm.
2. attempting to be close to the caregiver.
3. playing aimlessly with no contact with the caregiver.
4. expressing fear and anger at the caregiver.
43. Expressions of insecure-resistant/ambivalent attachment include:
1. playing happily.
2. ignoring the caregiver.
3. exploring a new toy.
4. clinging to the caregiver.
44. Which of the following IS NOT one of Gardner's multiple intelligences?
1. existential intelligence
2. bodily-kinesthetic intelligence
3. culinary intelligence
4. linguistic intelligence
45. Identify the statement that best illustrates the cognitive concept called “identity.”
1. “Even though they are an omelet now, they are still two eggs.”
2. “If you'll let me have one of your cookies, I'll let you use my new crayons.”
3. “If you give back my doll, we can be friends again.”
4. “Mommy can make my scraped knee well again.”
46. The term “holophrase” is used to denote:
1. the use of two words to take the place of one.
2. the infant's use of one word to express a whole thought.
3. a word that is empty of meaning.
4. the relationship of object permanence to language development.
47. The theorist who believed that children learn language when they are reinforced by parental attention was:
1. B. F. Skinner.
2. Leo Vygotsky.
3. Jean Piaget.
4. Noam Chomsky.
48. At 6 weeks of age, the infant is capable of:
1. anger.
2. laughter and curiosity.
3. a social smile.
4. stranger wariness.
49. When a baby is upset because a caregiver is leaving, the baby is exhibiting:
1. solitary fear.
2. fear of isolation.
3. separation anxiety.
4. general anxiety.
50. The first “crisis of life,” according to Erikson, is:
1. trust vs. mistrust.
2. industry vs. inferiority.
3. the oral stage.
4. autonomy vs. shame and doubt. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/06%3A_Middle_Childhood/6.09%3A_Middle_Childhood.txt |
• 7.1: Introduction to Adolescence
Adolescence is a period that begins with puberty and ends with the transition to adulthood. Adolescence has evolved historically, with evidence indicating that this stage is lengthening as individuals start puberty earlier and transition to adulthood later than in the past. Completion of formal education, financial independence from parents, marriage, and parenthood have all been markers of the end of adolescence and beginning of adulthood, which happen, on average, later now than in the past.
• 7.2: Physical Development
While the sequence of physical changes in puberty is predictable, the onset and pace of puberty vary widely. During this time, primary and secondary sexual characteristics develop and mature. During puberty, both sexes experience a rapid increase in height (i.e., growth spurt). Adolescents engage in increased risk-taking behaviors and emotional outbursts possibly because the frontal lobes of their brains are still developing.
• 7.3: Cognitive Development
During adolescence, teenagers move beyond concrete thinking and become capable of abstract thought. Teen thinking is also characterized by the ability to consider multiple points of view, imagine hypothetical situations, debate ideas and opinions (e.g., politics, religion, and justice), and form new ideas. In addition, it’s not uncommon for adolescents to question authority or challenge established societal norms.
• 7.4: Social Development
As children become adolescents, they usually begin spending more time with their peers and less time with their families, and these peer interactions are increasingly unsupervised by adults. Children’s notions of friendship often focus on shared activities, whereas adolescents’ notions of friendship increasingly focus on intimate exchanges of thoughts and feelings. One of the key changes during adolescence involves a renegotiation of parent–child relationships.
• 7.5: Adolescence
• 7.6: Adolescence
07: Adolescence
Adolescence is a period that begins with puberty and ends with the transition to adulthood (approximately ages 10–20). Physical changes associated with puberty are triggered by hormones. Cognitive changes include improvements in complex and abstract thought, as well as development that happens at different rates in distinct parts of the brain and increases adolescents’ propensity for risky behavior because increases in sensation-seeking and reward motivation precede increases in cognitive control. Adolescents’ relationships with parents go through a period of redefinition in which adolescents become more autonomous, and aspects of parenting, such as distal monitoring and psychological control, become more salient. Peer relationships are important sources of support and companionship during adolescence yet can also promote problem behaviors. Same-sex peer groups evolve into mixed-sex peer groups, and adolescents’ romantic relationships tend to emerge from these groups. Identity formation occurs as adolescents explore and commit to different roles and ideological positions. Nationality, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religious background, sexual orientation, and genetic factors shape how adolescents behave and how others respond to them, and are sources of diversity in adolescence.
Adolescence Defined
Adolescence is a developmental stage that has been defined as starting with puberty and ending with the transition to adulthood (approximately ages 10–20). Adolescence has evolved historically, with evidence indicating that this stage is lengthening as individuals start puberty earlier and transition to adulthood later than in the past. Puberty today begins, on average, at age 10–11 years for girls and 11–12 years for boys. This average age of onset has decreased gradually over time since the 19th century by 3–4 months per decade, which has been attributed to a range of factors including better nutrition, obesity, increased father absence, and other environmental factors (Steinberg, 2013[1]). Completion of formal education, financial independence from parents, marriage, and parenthood have all been markers of the end of adolescence and beginning of adulthood, and all of these transitions happen, on average, later now than in the past. In fact, the prolonging of adolescence has prompted the introduction of a new developmental period called emerging adulthood that captures these developmental changes out of adolescence and into adulthood, occurring from approximately ages 18 to 29 (Arnett, 2000[2]).
Adolescence is often characterized as a period of transformation, primarily, in terms of physical, cognitive, and social-relational change. [Image: Lorenia]
REFERENCES
1. Steinberg, L. (2013). Adolescence (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. ↵
2. Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469–480. ↵ | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/07%3A_Adolescence/7.01%3A_Introduction_to_Adolescence.txt |
Adolescence begins with puberty. While the sequence of physical changes in puberty is predictable, the onset and pace of puberty vary widely. Several physical changes occur during puberty, such as adrenarche and gonadarche, the maturing of the adrenal glands and sex glands, respectively. Also during this time, primary and secondary sexual characteristics develop and mature. Primary sexual characteristics are organs specifically needed for reproduction, like the uterus and ovaries in females and testes in males. Secondary sexual characteristics are physical signs of sexual maturation that do not directly involve sex organs, such as development of breasts and hips in girls, and development of facial hair and a deepened voice in boys. Girls experience menarche, the beginning of menstrual periods, usually around 12–13 years old, and boys experience spermarche, the first ejaculation, around 13–14 years old.
During puberty, both sexes experience a rapid increase in height (i.e., growth spurt). For girls this begins between 8 and 13 years old, with adult height reached between 10 and 16 years old. Boys begin their growth spurt slightly later, usually between 10 and 16 years old, and reach their adult height between 13 and 17 years old. Both nature (i.e., genes) and nurture (e.g., nutrition, medications, and medical conditions) can influence height.
Because rates of physical development vary so widely among teenagers, puberty can be a source of pride or embarrassment. Early maturing boys tend to be stronger, taller, and more athletic than their later maturing peers. They are usually more popular, confident, and independent, but they are also at a greater risk for substance abuse and early sexual activity (Flannery, Rowe, & Gulley, 1993; Kaltiala-Heino, Rimpela, Rissanen, & Rantanen, 2001). Early maturing girls may be teased or overtly admired, which can cause them to feel self-conscious about their developing bodies. These girls are at a higher risk for depression, substance abuse, and eating disorders (Ge, Conger, & Elder, 2001; Graber, Lewinsohn, Seeley, & Brooks-Gunn, 1997; Striegel-Moore & Cachelin, 1999). Late blooming boys and girls (i.e., they develop more slowly than their peers) may feel self-conscious about their lack of physical development. Negative feelings are particularly a problem for late maturing boys, who are at a higher risk for depression and conflict with parents (Graber et al., 1997) and more likely to be bullied (Pollack & Shuster, 2000).
The adolescent brain also remains under development. Up until puberty, brain cells continue to bloom in the frontal region. Adolescents engage in increased risk-taking behaviors and emotional outbursts possibly because the frontal lobes of their brains are still developing. Recall that this area is responsible for judgment, impulse control, and planning, and it is still maturing into early adulthood (Casey, Tottenham, Liston, & Durston, 2005).
Brain growth continues into the early 20s. The development of the frontal lobe, in particular, is important during this stage.
Note
According to neuroscientist Jay Giedd in the Frontline video “Inside the Teenage Brain” (2013), “It’s sort of unfair to expect [teens] to have adult levels of organizational skills or decision-making before their brains are finished being built.” Watch this segment on “The Wiring of the Adolescent Brain” to find out more about the developing brain during adolescence.
7.03: Cognitive Development
More complex thinking abilities emerge during adolescence. Some researchers suggest this is due to increases in processing speed and efficiency rather than as the result of an increase in mental capacity—in other words, due to improvements in existing skills rather than development of new ones (Bjorkland, 1987; Case, 1985). During adolescence, teenagers move beyond concrete thinking and become capable of abstract thought. Recall that Piaget refers to this stage as formal operational thought. Teen thinking is also characterized by the ability to consider multiple points of view, imagine hypothetical situations, debate ideas and opinions (e.g., politics, religion, and justice), and form new ideas. In addition, it’s not uncommon for adolescents to question authority or challenge established societal norms.
Early in adolescence, changes in the brain’s dopaminergic system contribute to increases in adolescents’ sensation-seeking and reward motivation. Later in adolescence, the brain’s cognitive control centers in the prefrontal cortex develop, increasing adolescents’ self-regulation and future orientation. The difference in timing of the development of these different regions of the brain contributes to more risk taking during middle adolescence because adolescents are motivated to seek thrills that sometimes come from risky behavior, such as reckless driving, smoking, or drinking, and have not yet developed the cognitive control to resist impulses or focus equally on the potential risks (Steinberg, 2008[1]). One of the world’s leading experts on adolescent development, Laurence Steinberg, likens this to engaging a powerful engine before the braking system is in place. The result is that adolescents are more prone to risky behaviors than are children or adults.
Cognitive empathy, also known as theory-of-mind (which we discussed earlier with regard to egocentrism), relates to the ability to take the perspective of others and feel concern for others (Shamay-Tsoory, Tomer, & Aharon-Peretz, 2005). Cognitive empathy begins to increase in adolescence and is an important component of social problem solving and conflict avoidance. According to one longitudinal study, levels of cognitive empathy begin rising in girls around 13 years old, and around 15 years old in boys (Van der Graaff et al., 2013). Teens who reported having supportive fathers with whom they could discuss their worries were found to be better able to take the perspective of others (Miklikowska, Duriez, & Soenens, 2011).
Teenage thinking is characterized by the ability to reason logically and solve hypothetical problems such as how to design, plan, and build a structure. (credit: U.S. Army RDECOM)
REFERENCES
1. Steinberg, L. (2013). Adolescence (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. ↵ | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/07%3A_Adolescence/7.02%3A_Physical_Development.txt |
Psychosocial Development
Adolescents continue to refine their sense of self as they relate to others. Erikson referred to the task of the adolescent as one of identity versus role confusion. Thus, in Erikson’s view, an adolescent’s main questions are “Who am I?” and “Who do I want to be?” Some adolescents adopt the values and roles that their parents expect for them. Other teens develop identities that are in opposition to their parents but align with a peer group. This is common as peer relationships become a central focus in adolescents’ lives.
As adolescents work to form their identities, they pull away from their parents, and the peer group becomes very important (Shanahan, McHale, Osgood, & Crouter, 2007). Despite spending less time with their parents, most teens report positive feelings toward them (Moore, Guzman, Hair, Lippman, & Garrett, 2004). Warm and healthy parent-child relationships have been associated with positive child outcomes, such as better grades and fewer school behavior problems, in the United States as well as in other countries (Hair et al., 2005).
It appears that most teens don’t experience adolescent storm and stress to the degree once famously suggested by G. Stanley Hall, a pioneer in the study of adolescent development. Only small numbers of teens have major conflicts with their parents (Steinberg & Morris, 2001), and most disagreements are minor. For example, in a study of over 1,800 parents of adolescents from various cultural and ethnic groups, Barber (1994) found that conflicts occurred over day-to-day issues such as homework, money, curfews, clothing, chores, and friends. These types of arguments tend to decrease as teens develop (Galambos & Almeida, 1992).
Social Changes
Parents. Although peers take on greater importance during adolescence, family relationships remain important too. One of the key changes during adolescence involves a renegotiation of parent–child relationships. As adolescents strive for more independence and autonomy during this time, different aspects of parenting become more salient. For example, parents’ distal supervision and monitoring become more important as adolescents spend more time away from parents and in the presence of peers. Parental monitoring encompasses a wide range of behaviors such as parents’ attempts to set rules and know their adolescents’ friends, activities, and whereabouts, in addition to adolescents’ willingness to disclose information to their parents (Stattin & Kerr, 2000[1]). Psychological control, which involves manipulation and intrusion into adolescents’ emotional and cognitive world through invalidating adolescents’ feelings and pressuring them to think in particular ways (Barber, 1996[2]), is another aspect of parenting that becomes more salient during adolescence and is related to more problematic adolescent adjustment.
Peers
As children become adolescents, they usually begin spending more time with their peers and less time with their families, and these peer interactions are increasingly unsupervised by adults. Children’s notions of friendship often focus on shared activities, whereas adolescents’ notions of friendship increasingly focus on intimate exchanges of thoughts and feelings. During adolescence, peer groups evolve from primarily single-sex to mixed-sex. Adolescents within a peer group tend to be similar to one another in behavior and attitudes, which has been explained as being a function of homophily (adolescents who are similar to one another choose to spend time together in a “birds of a feather flock together” way) and influence (adolescents who spend time together shape each other’s behavior and attitudes). One of the most widely studied aspects of adolescent peer influence is known as deviant peer contagion (Dishion & Tipsord, 2011[3]), which is the process by which peers reinforce problem behavior by laughing or showing other signs of approval that then increase the likelihood of future problem behavior.
Peers can serve both positive and negative functions during adolescence. Negative peer pressure can lead adolescents to make riskier decisions or engage in more problematic behavior than they would alone or in the presence of their family. For example, adolescents are much more likely to drink alcohol, use drugs, and commit crimes when they are with their friends than when they are alone or with their family. However, peers also serve as an important source of social support and companionship during adolescence, and adolescents with positive peer relationships are happier and better adjusted than those who are socially isolated or have conflictual peer relationships.
Crowds refer to different collections of people, like the “theater kids” or the “environmentalists.” In a way, they are kind of like clothing brands that label the people associated with that crowd. [Image: Garry Knight]
Crowds are an emerging level of peer relationships in adolescence. In contrast to friendships (which are reciprocal dyadic relationships) and cliques (which refer to groups of individuals who interact frequently), crowds are characterized more by shared reputations or images than actual interactions (Brown & Larson, 2009[4]). These crowds reflect different prototypic identities (such as jocks or brains) and are often linked with adolescents’ social status and peers’ perceptions of their values or behaviors.
Romantic Relationships
Adolescence is the developmental period during which romantic relationships typically first emerge. Initially, same-sex peer groups that were common during childhood expand into mixed-sex peer groups that are more characteristic of adolescence. Romantic relationships often form in the context of these mixed-sex peer groups (Connolly, Furman, & Konarski, 2000[5]). Although romantic relationships during adolescence are often short-lived rather than long-term committed partnerships, their importance should not be minimized. Adolescents spend a great deal of time focused on romantic relationships, and their positive and negative emotions are more tied to romantic relationships (or lack thereof) than to friendships, family relationships, or school (Furman & Shaffer, 2003[6]). Romantic relationships contribute to adolescents’ identity formation, changes in family and peer relationships, and adolescents’ emotional and behavioral adjustment.
Furthermore, romantic relationships are centrally connected to adolescents’ emerging sexuality. Parents, policymakers, and researchers have devoted a great deal of attention to adolescents’ sexuality, in large part because of concerns related to sexual intercourse, contraception, and preventing teen pregnancies. However, sexuality involves more than this narrow focus. For example, adolescence is often when individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender come to perceive themselves as such (Russell, Clarke, & Clary, 2009[7]). Thus, romantic relationships are a domain in which adolescents experiment with new behaviors and identities.
Behavioral And Psychological Adjustment
Identity Formation
Theories of adolescent development often focus on identity formation as a central issue. For example, in Erikson’s (1968[8]) classic theory of developmental stages, identity formation was highlighted as the primary indicator of successful development during adolescence (in contrast to role confusion, which would be an indicator of not successfully meeting the task of adolescence). Marcia (1966[9]) described identify formation during adolescence as involving both decision points and commitments with respect to ideologies (e.g., religion, politics) and occupations. He described four identity statuses: foreclosure, identity diffusion, moratorium, and identity achievement. Foreclosure occurs when an individual commits to an identity without exploring options. Identity diffusion occurs when adolescents neither explore nor commit to any identities. Moratorium is a state in which adolescents are actively exploring options but have not yet made commitments. Identity achievement occurs when individuals have explored different options and then made identity commitments. Building on this work, other researchers have investigated more specific aspects of identity. For example, Phinney (1989[10]) proposed a model of ethnic identity development that included stages of unexplored ethnic identity, ethnic identity search, and achieved ethnic identity.
Aggression and Antisocial Behavior
Several major theories of the development of antisocial behavior treat adolescence as an important period. Patterson’s (1982[11]) early versus late starter model of the development of aggressive and antisocial behavior distinguishes youths whose antisocial behavior begins during childhood (early starters) versus adolescence (late starters). According to the theory, early starters are at greater risk for long-term antisocial behavior that extends into adulthood than are late starters. Late starters who become antisocial during adolescence are theorized to experience poor parental monitoring and supervision, aspects of parenting that become more salient during adolescence. Poor monitoring and lack of supervision contribute to increasing involvement with deviant peers, which in turn promotes adolescents’ own antisocial behavior. Late starters desist from antisocial behavior when changes in the environment make other options more appealing. Similarly, Moffitt’s (1993[12]) life-course persistent versus adolescent-limited model distinguishes between antisocial behavior that begins in childhood versus adolescence. Moffitt regards adolescent-limited antisocial behavior as resulting from a “maturity gap” between adolescents’ dependence on and control by adults and their desire to demonstrate their freedom from adult constraint. However, as they continue to develop, and legitimate adult roles and privileges become available to them, there are fewer incentives to engage in antisocial behavior, leading to desistance in these antisocial behaviors.
Early, antisocial behavior leads to befriending others who also engage in antisocial behavior, which only perpetuates the downward cycle of aggression and wrongful acts. [Image: Philippe Put]
Anxiety and Depression
Developmental models of anxiety and depression also treat adolescence as an important period, especially in terms of the emergence of gender differences in prevalence rates that persist through adulthood (Rudolph, 2009[13]). Starting in early adolescence, compared with males, females have rates of anxiety that are about twice as high and rates of depression that are 1.5 to 3 times as high (American Psychiatric Association, 2013[14]). Although the rates vary across specific anxiety and depression diagnoses, rates for some disorders are markedly higher in adolescence than in childhood or adulthood. For example, prevalence rates for specific phobias are about 5% in children and 3%–5% in adults but 16% in adolescents. Anxiety and depression are particularly concerning because suicide is one of the leading causes of death during adolescence. Developmental models focus on interpersonal contexts in both childhood and adolescence that foster depression and anxiety (e.g., Rudolph, 2009[15]). Family adversity, such as abuse and parental psychopathology, during childhood sets the stage for social and behavioral problems during adolescence. Adolescents with such problems generate stress in their relationships (e.g., by resolving conflict poorly and excessively seeking reassurance) and select into more maladaptive social contexts (e.g., “misery loves company” scenarios in which depressed youths select other depressed youths as friends and then frequently co-ruminate as they discuss their problems, exacerbating negative affect and stress). These processes are intensified for girls compared with boys because girls have more relationship-oriented goals related to intimacy and social approval, leaving them more vulnerable to disruption in these relationships. Anxiety and depression then exacerbate problems in social relationships, which in turn contribute to the stability of anxiety and depression over time.
Academic Achievement
Adolescents spend more waking time in school than in any other context (Eccles & Roeser, 2011[16]). Academic achievement during adolescence is predicted by interpersonal (e.g., parental engagement in adolescents’ education), intrapersonal (e.g., intrinsic motivation), and institutional (e.g., school quality) factors. Academic achievement is important in its own right as a marker of positive adjustment during adolescence but also because academic achievement sets the stage for future educational and occupational opportunities. The most serious consequence of school failure, particularly dropping out of school, is the high risk of unemployment or underemployment in adulthood that follows. High achievement can set the stage for college or future vocational training and opportunities.
Diversity
Adolescent development does not necessarily follow the same pathway for all individuals. Certain features of adolescence, particularly with respect to biological changes associated with puberty and cognitive changes associated with brain development, are relatively universal. But other features of adolescence depend largely on circumstances that are more environmentally variable. For example, adolescents growing up in one country might have different opportunities for risk taking than adolescents in a different country, and supports and sanctions for different behaviors in adolescence depend on laws and values that might be specific to where adolescents live. Likewise, different cultural norms regarding family and peer relationships shape adolescents’ experiences in these domains. For example, in some countries, adolescents’ parents are expected to retain control over major decisions, whereas in other countries, adolescents are expected to begin sharing in or taking control of decision making.
Even within the same country, adolescents’ gender, ethnicity, immigrant status, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and personality can shape both how adolescents behave and how others respond to them, creating diverse developmental contexts for different adolescents. For example, early puberty (that occurs before most other peers have experienced puberty) appears to be associated with worse outcomes for girls than boys, likely in part because girls who enter puberty early tend to associate with older boys, which in turn is associated with early sexual behavior and substance use. For adolescents who are ethnic or sexual minorities, discrimination sometimes presents a set of challenges that nonminorities do not face.
Finally, genetic variations contribute an additional source of diversity in adolescence. Current approaches emphasize gene X environment interactions, which often follow a differential susceptibility model (Belsky & Pluess, 2009[17]). That is, particular genetic variations are considered riskier than others, but genetic variations also can make adolescents more or less susceptible to environmental factors. For example, the association between the CHRM2genotype and adolescent externalizing behavior (aggression and delinquency)has been found in adolescents whose parents are low in monitoring behaviors (Dick et al., 2011[18]). Thus, it is important to bear in mind that individual differences play an important role in adolescent development.
Conclusions
Adolescent development is characterized by biological, cognitive, and social changes. Social changes are particularly notable as adolescents become more autonomous from their parents, spend more time with peers, and begin exploring romantic relationships and sexuality. Adjustment during adolescence is reflected in identity formation, which often involves a period of exploration followed by commitments to particular identities. Adolescence is characterized by risky behavior, which is made more likely by changes in the brain in which reward-processing centers develop more rapidly than cognitive control systems, making adolescents more sensitive to rewards than to possible negative consequences. Despite these generalizations, factors such as country of residence, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation shape development in ways that lead to diversity of experiences across adolescence.
Outside Resources
1. Podcasts: Society for Research on Adolescence website with links to podcasts on a variety of topics related to adolescent development
2. Study: Add Health website on one of the biggest longitudinal studies of adolescence to date
3. Video: A selection of TED talks on adolescent brain development
4. Web: UNICEF website on adolescents around the world
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What can parents do to promote their adolescents’ positive adjustment?
2. In what ways do changes in brain development and cognition make adolescents particularly susceptible to peer influence?
3. How could interventions designed to prevent or reduce adolescents’ problem behavior be developed to take advantage of what we know about adolescent development?
4. Reflecting on your own adolescence, provide examples of times when you think your experience was different from those of your peers as a function of something unique about you.
5. In what ways was your experience of adolescence different from your parents’ experience of adolescence? How do you think adolescence may be different 20 years from now?
REFERENCES
1. Stattin, H., & Kerr, M. (2000). Parental monitoring: A reinterpretation. Child Development, 71, 1072–1085. ↵
2. Barber, B. K. (1996). Parental psychological control: Revisiting a neglected construct. Child Development, 67, 3296–3319. ↵
3. Dishion, T. J., & Tipsord, J. M. (2011). Peer contagion in child and adolescent social and emotional development. Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 189–214. ↵
4. Brown, B. B., & Larson, J. (2009). Peer relationships in adolescence. In R. M. Lerner & L. Steinberg (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent psychology (pp. 74–103). New York, NY: Wiley. ↵
5. Connolly, J., Furman, W., & Konarski, R. (2000). The role of peers in the emergence of heterosexual romantic relationships in adolescence. Child Development, 71, 1395–1408. ↵
6. Furman, W., & Shaffer, L. (2003). The role of romantic relationships in adolescent development. In P. Florsheim (Ed.), Adolescent romantic relations and sexual behavior: Theory, research, and practical implications (pp. 3–22). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. ↵
7. Russell, S. T., Clarke, T. J., & Clary, J. (2009). Are teens “post-gay”? Contemporary adolescents’ sexual identity labels. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 38, 884–890. ↵
8. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity, youth, and crisis. New York, NY: Norton. ↵
9. Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 551–558. ↵
10. Phinney, J. (1989). Stages of ethnic identity in minority group adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 9, 34–49. ↵
11. Patterson, G. R. (1982). Coercive family process. Eugene, OR: Castalia Press. ↵
12. Moffitt, T. E. (1993). Adolescence-limited and life course persistent antisocial behavior: Developmental taxonomy. Psychological Review, 100, 674–701. ↵
13. Rudolph, K. D. (2009). The interpersonal context of adolescent depression. In S. Nolen-Hoeksema & L. M. Hilt (Eds.), Handbook of depression in adolescents (pp. 377–418). New York, NY: Taylor and Francis. ↵
14. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing. ↵
15. Rudolph, K. D. (2009). The interpersonal context of adolescent depression. In S. Nolen-Hoeksema & L. M. Hilt (Eds.), Handbook of depression in adolescents (pp. 377–418). New York, NY: Taylor and Francis. ↵
16. Eccles, J. S., & Roeser, R. W. (2011). Schools as developmental contexts during adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21, 225–241. ↵
17. Belsky, J., & Pluess, M. (2009). Beyond diathesis-stress: Differential susceptibility to environmental influences. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 885–908. ↵
18. Dick, D. M., Meyers, J. L., Latendresse, S. J., Creemers, H. E., Lansford, J. E., … Huizink, A. C. (2011). CHRM2, parental monitoring, and adolescent externalizing behavior: Evidence for gene-environment interaction. Psychological Science, 22, 481–489. ↵ | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/07%3A_Adolescence/7.04%3A_Social_Development.txt |
Lecture Transcript
Adolescence is a period of transition from childhood to adulthood. It includes many physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes. We first explore physical development.
Puberty is a period of rapid physical growth and sexual maturation that occurs during adolescence. These changes begin somewhere between ages 8 and 14. Girls begin puberty at around 10 years of age. Boys begin about a year and a half later. These changes take around 3 to 4 years for completion.
Adolescents experience an overall physical growth spurt. The growth proceeds from the extremities toward the torso. This is referred to as distal-proximal development. In other words, you may see the hands grow, then the arms, and finally the torso. The overall physical growth spurt means increases of about 10-11 inches in height and 50 to 75 pounds in weight. The head begins to grow sometime after the feet have gone through their period of growth. Growth of the head is preceded by growth of the ears, nose, and lips, however. As the torso grows, so does the internal organs. The heart and lungs experience dramatic growth during this period. Sweat, odor, and oil glands become more active. Teenagers in the United States spend a lot of money on deodorants and acne medications as a result.
The brain also undergoes dramatic change during adolescence. The prefrontal cortex, located behind the forehead, is a part of the brain that helps with judgment, planning, and strategizing. This grows in early adolescence. The cerebellum also grows during adolescence. Watch the film assigned in this lesson, Inside the Teenage Brain, for more detail.
Sexual maturation is another change we undergo during adolescence. Changes are divided into two categories: primary sex characteristics are changes in the reproductive organs. For males, primary characteristics include growth of the testes, penis, scrotum, and the first ejaculation of semen or spermarche. This occurs between 11-15 years of age.
Secondary characteristics are those not directly linked to reproduction but changes that signal that a male is becoming sexually mature. Shoulders become broader, the areola or area around the nipples become larger. There is some temporary breast development due to hormonal changes in many boys, typically around 14 years of age. The voice becomes lower as the larynx grows. Hair becomes more coarse and darker. And hair in the pubic area, under the arms, and on the face develops.
In females, primary characteristics include growth of the uterus and the first menstrual period or menarche. Stress and higher percentage of body fat can bring menstruation at younger ages.
Many of the secondary characteristics are the same for boys and girls. Breast development begins at around age 10 and full development takes several years. Hips broaden and legs get larger. The voice becomes lower as the larynx grows, just as it does in males. Although, it is often less noticeable in females. Hair becomes darker and coarser. Pubic and underarm hair develops as well.
There is currently a lot of attention placed on physical appearance in the United States. This can be difficult for teens. Most teens just want to fit in with their peers and those who do not may feel uncomfortable. Teens that are overweight or obese may be ridiculed or teased. Physical changes may be easier for boys than girls because while boys are moving toward the cultural ideal of getting larger, girls are moving away from the cultural ideal of remaining thin. Early maturing females may feel uncomfortable with puberty, particularly because they may be thought of as much older than they are and may be thought of sexually active and mature, even though they are not. Late maturing females may feel that others do not respect them as having grown up. Early maturing males may be popular in school and thought of as more mature than they are. They may also be recruited into gangs or for other violent activity because of their physique if they live in neighborhoods or communities where this type of activity occurs. Late maturing males may overcompensate for their slight build by trying to act as if they are older than they are.
The growth spurt is accompanied by a need for more calories. Most teens in the United States take in enough calories, but do not eat healthy foods. High fat, sugar, and salty foods combined with a sedentary life style leave many teens struggling with being overweight or obese. Such teens experience health risks such as sleep apnea, high blood pressure, and type II diabetes.
Teens may also experience eating disorders. Teenage girls are especially vulnerable to eating disorders in cultures obsessed with thinness. Anorexia nervosa is overall starvation that is life threatening. A person with anorexia sees fat where there is none and may become obsessed with thinness, excessive dieting, and exercise. Anorexia is difficult to treat but can lead to cardiac arrest.
Bulimia is another eating disorder in which a person eats in binging episodes and then purges through self-induced vomiting or using laxatives or enemas. Repeated exposure of the teeth to corrosive stomach acid can break down the enamel. Blood blisters may develop on the roof of the mouth, the index finger may become discolored, and the esophagus damaged by repeatedly vomiting.
With adolescence comes a potential escalation in situations of abuse. Physical abuse becomes more violent as a parent has altercations with a much bigger child in adolescence. Sexual abuse increases with puberty and the impact of such abuse can include feeling stigmatized, having a distorted sense of sexuality, feeling powerless, and distrust. The myth of mutuality is the myth that the victim of sexual abuse is somehow responsible for its occurrence. This myth makes it very difficult for a person who has been sexually abused to overcome the negative feelings associated with the abuse. Recognizing that this is a myth is an important step toward healing.
A majority of youth become sexually active in their late teens. The use of contraception has increased and teen pregnancy rates, though still high, have decreased. Most teens engage in sexual activity with a steady partner.
In the United States, the decline in teenagers using tobacco has stopped. Over-the-counter medications are still cause for concern as many teens use these for recreation. Marijuana is now the most commonly used drug. It has surpassed smoking tobacco. The perceived risk of marijuana use has been declining.
Some drugs are considered gateway drugs which means that the use of these drugs can often lead to use of stronger drugs. Drug use often interferes with healthy nutrition and sleep so important for teens. And many dangerous decisions can be made while under the influence. Examples include engaging in risky sexual behavior or driving while high or intoxicated.
Let’s turn our attention to some global concerns about youth. Youth make up 30 percent of the population in some developing countries. We’ve seen an increase in the amount of schooling children receive. But often the quality of instruction is poor and teachers and educational materials are hard to obtain. Drought, war, and other circumstances often disrupt schooling. The number of youth participating in the labor force has decreased in many parts of the world. This allows children to participate in formal education.
HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa. This is due to low condom use and widespread coercive sex. Tobacco use has been increasing in developing countries. And child brides or marriage to girls under 18 has decreased. These are just a few concerns about youth in the developing world.
Let’s explore cognitive development in adolescence.
Piaget believed that many adolescents reach formal operational thought. This is marked by the ability to think abstractly or to use systems of abstract thought or logic more readily. An adolescent may now be able to understand symbolic meanings such as those found in religion. Adolescents may also thing about “what if” situations or hypothetical situations more easily. And the adolescent may become conscious of their thoughts and enjoy the game of thinking or introspection.
Psychologist David Elkind offers some insights into the unique qualities of adolescent thought.
Adolescent egocentrism is the feeling a teenager may have that no one can understand what they are going through. A consoling adult may be told, “You don’t understand! Nobody understands!”
The imaginary audience refers to the feeling of self-consciousness that many adolescents feel. Even when alone, the teenager may be imagining how others would see them. Those who feel particularly uneasy or awkward may try to make the discomfort by being sarcastic or by posturing in public.
The personal fable is the notion that fame and fortune lie ahead. This belief comes as the adolescent is able to see possibilities, but not yet understand probabilities. I had a student once who raised her hand during our class discussion of the personal fable. I called on her and she said, “Oh my gosh! I did this! I kept a list of all of my teacher’s names so that I could personally thank them when I became famous!”
What was your personal fable? You may have given up on it once you found out how unlikely it was.
The invincibility fable is the mistaken idea that one is indestructible. Teenagers may think they may never get hurt when engaging in risky behavior. Look for examples of the invincibility fable in the film you view for this lesson.
In youth, conformity is emphasized. Many young teenagers, especially, pressure one another to act, speak, dress, and think alike.
Formal operational thought can be accompanied by the ability to see possibilities never before considered. Youth are often idealistic as a result. However, what is possible is not the same as what is likely.
Some current concerns in education in the United States include reducing the rate of students who drop out of school before completing their high school diplomas, the impersonal nature of large, bureaucratic high schools, and the issue of where to group students by age in school. Should sixth graders be included in elementary school or should they be part of a junior high? Should ninth graders be at the top of their school in a junior high or should they attend school with seniors? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of each?
We now turn our attention to relationships and psychosocial development in adolescence.
The beginning of our modern idea of adolescence as a time of storm and stress can be traced to G. Stanley Hall. Hall wrote a 3 volume work documenting the lives of youth in 1909. As people relocated to large industrial cities in the U. S., youth became more visible and gained the attention of social workers and others concerned with development. Hall believed that the storm and stress of adolescence is created by the biological changes associated with puberty. But for many teens, adolescence is not a period of storm and stress. It seems to be a more stressful time for those who are also experiencing other stressors, perhaps at school or at home. Consider your adolescence. Would you like to return to that period in your life? Why or why not?
Anna Freud wrote about adolescence and saw it as a period of temporary disruption as the id, ego, and superego are out of balance. Hopefully, the overactive id is brought under control by the ego or through the use of reason and by being realistic. The later years of adolescence are less volatile than early adolescence.
Erikson believed that the primary concern of adolescence is that of establishing identity. The teen struggles with the question, “Who am I?” Who am I physically, sexually, socially, vocationally, spiritually, academically, and so on? Hopefully, the teen postpones making any decisions that will lock him or her in prematurely. The teen needs to wait or go through a period of exploration, called a psychosocial moratorium, before making any long term decisions. Foreclosure occurs when others take that decision-making away from the teen. Having a criminal record or becoming a parent are examples of foreclosure. The teen that goes through adolescence without establishing an identity may be apathetic about the future. This is referred to as identity confusion.
Here is a list of what some teens reported that they wanted from their parents.
• They wanted reasonable freedoms and privileges.
• The wanted their parents to show faith in the decisions they made.
• They wanted their parents to approve of them as people; not that they had to like everything the teen did or said.
• They wanted their parents to be willing to listen to them.
• The wanted their parents to show concern for them and to support them in their interests.
7.06: Adolescence
Lifespan Development: Adolescence Powerpoint from Lumen Learning | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/07%3A_Adolescence/7.05%3A_Adolescence.txt |
Emerging adulthood is a phase of the life span between adolescence and full-fledged adulthood which encompasses late adolescence and early adulthood, proposed by Jeffrey Arnett in a 2000 article in the American Psychologist. It primarily describes people living in developed countries, but it is also experienced by young people in urban wealthy families in the Global South. The term describes young adults who do not have children, do not live in their own home, or do not have sufficient income to become fully independent in their early to late 20s. Arnett suggests emerging adulthood is the distinct period between 18 and 25 years of age where adolescents become more independent and explore various life possibilities.
• 8.1: Introduction to Early Adulthood
The focus of early adulthood is often on the future. Many aspects of life are on hold while people go to school, go to work, and prepare for a brighter future. There may be a belief that the hurried life now lived will improve ‘as soon as I finish school’ or ‘as soon as I get promoted’ or ‘as soon as the children get a little older.’ As a result, time may seem to pass rather quickly.
• 8.2: Physical Development
People in their twenties and thirties are considered young adults. If you are in your early twenties, good news-you are probably at the peak of your physiological development. Your reproductive system, motor ability, strength, and lung capacity are operating at their best. By the time you reach your mid to late 30s, you will begin to notice signs of aging. This includes a decline in your immune system, your response time, and in your ability to recover quickly from physical exertion.
• 8.3: Cognitive Development
Postformal thought is practical, realistic and more individualistic. As a person approaches the late 30s, chances are they make decisions out of necessity or because of prior experience and are less influenced by what others think. In addition to moving toward more practical considerations, thinking in early adulthood may also become more flexible and balanced. Adolescents tend to think in dichotomies but the adult comes to recognize that there is some good or some bad in a policy or approach.
• 8.4: Psychosocial Development
Adulthood is a period of building and rebuilding one’s life. Many of the decisions that are made in early adulthood are made before a person has had enough experience to really understand the consequences of such decisions. And, perhaps, many of these initial decisions are made with one goal in mind-to be seen as an adult. As a result, early decisions may be driven more by the expectations of others.
• 8.5: Types of Love
Sternberg suggests that there are three main components of love: passion, intimacy, and commitment. Love relationships vary depending on the presence or absence of each of these components. Although many would agree that all three components are important to a relationship, many love relationships do not consist of all three.
• 8.6: Love Attitude Scale
• 8.7: Love Styles
• 8.8: Adolescence and Early Adulthood
• 8.9: Early Adulthood
• 8.10: Early Adulthood
• 8.11: Adolescence and Early Adulthood
• 8.12: Unit 3 Exam
08: Early Adulthood
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the developmental tasks of early adulthood.
• Describe physical development in early adulthood.
• Explain how early adulthood is a healthy, yet risky time of life.
• Summarize Levinson’s theory of adult transitions.
• Distinguish between formal and postformal thought.
• Explain dialectical thought.
• Describe Erikson’s stage of intimacy vs. isolation.
• Question Erikson’s assertion about the focus on intimacy in early adulthood.
• Identify trends in mate selection, age at first marriage, and cohabitation in the United States.
• Discuss fertility issues in early adulthood.
• Explain social exchange theory of mate selection.
• Define the principle of least interest.
• Apply Sternberg’s theory of love to specific examples of relationships.
• Apply Lee’s love styles to specific examples of relationships.
• Compare frames of relationships.
• Explain the wheel theory of love.
• Explain the process of disaffection.
• Describe some current concerns in education in today’s colleges.
Developmental Tasks of Early Adulthood
Photo Courtesy of Joshua Gray
Early adulthood can be a very busy time of life. Havighurst (1972) describes some of the developmental tasks of young adults. These include:
• Achieving autonomy: trying to establish oneself as an independent person with a life of one’s own
• Establishing identity: more firmly establishing likes, dislikes, preferences, and philosophies
• Developing emotional stability: becoming more stable emotionally which is considered a sign of maturing
• Establishing a career: deciding on and pursuing a career or at least an initial career direction and pursuing an education
• Finding intimacy: forming first close, long-term relationships
• Becoming part of a group or community: young adults may, for the first time, become involved with various groups in the community. They may begin voting or volunteering to be part of civic organizations (scouts, church groups, etc.). This is especially true for those who participate in organizations as parents.
• Establishing a residence and learning how to manage a household: learning how to budget and keep a home maintained.
• Becoming a parent and rearing children: learning how to manage a household with children. Making marital adjustments and learning to parent.
Exercise:
To what extent do you think these have changed in the last several years? How might these tasks be different across cultures?
REFERENCES
American Society of Reproductive Medicine (1996-2011): quick facs about infertility. (n.d.). American Society for Reproductive Medicine: News and Publications. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.reproductivefacts.org
Basseches, M. (1984). Dialectical thinking and adult development. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Pub.
Benokraitis, N. V. (2005). Marriages and families: Changes, choices, and constraints (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Berger, K. S. (n.d.). The developing person through the life span (6th ed.). New York: Worth.
Bianchi, S., & Casper, L. (2000). American families. (Dec. ed., Vol. 55) (United States, Population Reference Bureau). Washington, DC: Population Bulletin.
Bok, D. (2005, December 18). Are colleges failing? – The Boston Globe. Boston.com – Boston, MA News, Breaking News, Sports, Video. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.boston.com/news/education...lleges_failing?
Bok, D. C. (2006). Our underachieving colleges: A candid look at how much students learn and why they should be learning more. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Brooks, J. M. (1997). Beyond teaching and learning paradigms: Trekking into the Virtual University. Teaching Sociology, 27, 1-14.
Carroll, J. L. (2007). Sexuality now: Embracing diversity (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning.
Casper, L. M., & Bianchi, S. M. (2002). Continuity and change in the American family. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Collins, L. (1999). Emotional adultery: Cybersex and commitment. Social Theory and Practice, 25(2), 243-270.
Davidson, J. K. (1991). Marriage and family. Dubuque, IA: William C. Brown.
Frieden, T. (2011, January 14). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for the Centers for Disease Control (United States, Center for Disease Control). Retrieved February 12, 2011, from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwr...m?s_su6001al_w
Gwinnell, E. (1998). Online seductions: Falling in love with strangers on the Internet. New York: Johnson Publishing.
Havighurst, R. J. (1972). Developmental tasks and education, (3rd ed.). New York: D. McKay.
Heron, M. P., & Smith, B. L. (2007). Products – Health E Stats – Homepage. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pub...ingdeath03.htm
HRC | Marriage & relationship recognition. (n.d.). HRC | Human Rights Campaign | Home. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.hrc.org/issues/marriage.asp
Kerckhoff, A., & Davis, K. (1962). Value consensus and need complementarity in mate selection. American Sociological Review, 27(June), 295-303.
Lee, J. A. (1973). The colors of love: An exploration of the ways of loving. Don Mills, Ont.: New Press.
Of, T. (2006, September 21). Families and living arrangements, formerly households and families. Census Bureau Home Page. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.census.gov/population/www...mo/hh-fam.html
Reiss, I. (1960). Toward a sociology of the heterosexual love relationship. Marriage and Family Living, 22(May), 139-145.
Ridley, C. A., Peterman, D. J., & Avery, A. W. (1978). Cohabitation: Does it make for a better marriage? The Family Coordinator, April, 126-136.
Seccombe, K., & Warner, R. L. (2004). Marriages and families: Relationships in social context. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Sternberg, R. (1988). A triangular theory of love. New York: Basic.
Tannen, D. (1990). You just don’t understand: Women and men in conversation. New York: Morrow.
United States, U. S. Department of Education. (2006). A test of leadership: Charting the future of U. S. higher education. Washington, D. C.
Volko, N. D. (2004, September 19). Exploring the Whys of Adolescent Drug Use. (United States, National Institute on Drug Abuse). Retrieved January 23, 2007, from http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_notes/...epVol19N3.html | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/08%3A_Early_Adulthood/8.01%3A_Introduction_to_Early_Adulthood.txt |
The Physiological Peak: People in their twenties and thirties are considered young adults. If you are in your early twenties, good news-you are probably at the peak of your physiological development. Your reproductive system, motor ability, strength, and lung capacity are operating at their best. Now here is the bad news. These systems will now start a slow, gradual decline so that by the time you reach your mid to late 30s, you will begin to notice signs of aging. This includes a decline in your immune system, your response time, and in your ability to recover quickly from physical exertion. For example, you may have noticed that it takes you quite some time to stop panting after running to class or taking the stairs. But, here is more good news. Getting out of shape is not an inevitable part of aging; it is probably due to the fact that you have become less physically active and have experienced greater stress. How is that good news, you ask? It’s good news because it means that there are thing you can do to combat many of these changes. So keep in mind, as we continue to discuss the life span that many of the changes we associate with aging can be turned around if we adopt healthier lifestyles.
A Healthy, but Risky Time: Doctor’s visits are less frequent in early adulthood than for those in midlife and late adulthood and are necessitated primarily by injury and pregnancy (Berger, 2005). However, among the top five causes of death in young adulthood are non-intentional injury (including motor vehicle accidents), homicide, and suicide (Heron, M. P. & B. L. Smith, 2007). Cancer and heart disease complete the list. Rates of violent death (homicide, suicide, and accidents) are highest among young adult males, and vary among by race and ethnicity. Rates of violent death are higher in the United States than in Canada, Mexico, Japan, and other selected countries. Males are 3 times more likely to die in auto accidents than are females (Frieden, 2011).
Substance Abuse: Rates of violent death are influenced by substance abuse which peaks during early adulthood. Illicit drug use peaks between the ages of 19 and 22 and then begins to decline (Berk, 2007). And twenty-five percent of those who smoke cigarettes, a third of those who smoke marijuana, and 70 percent of those who abuse cocaine began using after age 17 (Volkow, 2004). Some young adults use as a way of coping with stressors from family, personal relationships, or concerns over being on one’s own. Others use because they have friends who use and in the early 20s, there is still a good deal of pressure to conform. Half of all alcohol consumed in the United States is in the form of binge drinking (Frieden, 2011).
Drugs impair judgment, reduce inhibitions, and alter mood, all of which can lead to dangerous behavior. Reckless driving, violent altercations, and forced sexual encounters are some examples. Binge drinking on college campuses has received considerable media and public attention. The role alcohol plays in predicting acquaintance rape on college campuses is of particular concern. In the majority of cases of rape, the victim knows the rapist. Being intoxicated increases a female’s risk of being the victim of date or acquaintance rape (Fisher et als. in Carroll, 2007). And, she is more likely to blame herself and to be blamed by others if she was intoxicated when raped. Males increase their risk of being accused of rape if they are drunk when an incidence occurred (Carroll, 2007).
Drug and alcohol use increase the risk of sexually transmitted infections because people are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior when under the influence. This includes having sex with someone who has had multiple partners, having anal sex without the use of a condom, having multiple partners, or having sex with someone whose history is unknown. And, as we previously discussed in our lesson on Beginnings, drugs and alcohol ingested during pregnancy have a teratogenic effect.
Sexual Responsiveness and Reproduction in Early Adulthood
Sexual Responsiveness: Men and women tend to reach their peak of sexual responsiveness at different ages. For men, sexual responsiveness tends to peak in the late teens and early twenties. Sexual arousal can easily occur in response to physical stimulation or fantasizing. Sexual responsiveness begins a slow decline in the late twenties and into the thirties although a man may continue to be sexually active. Through time, a man may require more intense stimulation in order to become aroused. Women often find that they become more sexually responsive throughout their 20s and 30s and may peak in the late 30s or early 40s. This is likely due to greater self-confidence and reduced inhibitions about sexuality.
Reproduction: For many couples, early adulthood is the time for having children. However, delaying childbearing until the late 20s or early 30s has become more common in the United States.
Couples delay childbearing for a number of reasons. Women are more likely to attend college and begin careers before starting families. And both men and women are delaying marriage until they are in their late 20s and early 30s.
Infertility: Infertility affects about 6.1 million women or 10 percent of the reproductive age population (American Society of Reproductive Medicine [ASRM], 2000-2007). Male factors create infertility in about a third of the cases. For men, the most common cause is a lack of sperm production or low sperm production. Female factors cause infertility in another third of cases. For women, one of the most common causes of infertility is the failure to ovulate. Another cause of infertility is pelvic inflammatory disease, an infection of the female genital tract (Carroll, 2007). Pelvic inflammatory disease is experienced by 1 out of 7 women in the United States and leads to infertility about 20 percent of the time. One of the major causes of pelvic inflammatory disease is Chlamydia trachomatis, the most commonly diagnosed sexually transmitted infection in young women. Another cause of pelvic inflammatory disease is gonorrhea. Both male and female factors contribute to the remainder of cases of infertility.
Fertility treatment: The majority of infertility cases (85-90 percent) are treated using fertility drugs to increase ovulation or with surgical procedures to repair the reproductive organs or remove scar tissue from the reproductive tract. In vitro fertilization is used to treat infertility in less than 5 percent of cases. IVF is used when a woman has blocked or deformed fallopian tubes or sometimes when a man has a very low sperm count. This procedure involves removing eggs from the female and fertilizing the eggs outside the woman’s body. The fertilized egg is then reinserted in the woman’s uterus. The average cost of IVF is over \$12,000 and the success rate is between 5 to 30 percent. IVF makes up about 99 percent of artificial reproductive procedures.
Less common procedures include gamete intra-fallopian tube transfer (GIFT) which involves implanting both sperm and ova into the fallopian tube and fertilization is allowed to occur naturally. The success rate of implantation is higher for GIFT than for IVF (Carroll, 2007). Zygote intra-fallopian tube transfer (ZIFT) is another procedure in which sperm and ova are fertilized outside of the woman’s body and the fertilized egg or zygote is then implanted in the fallopian tube. This allows the zygote to travel down the fallopian tube and embed in the lining of the uterus naturally. This procedure also has a higher success rate than IVF.
Insurance coverage for infertility is required in fourteen states, but the amount and type of coverage available varies greatly (ASRM, 2000-2007). The majority of couples seeking treatment for infertility pay much of the cost. Consequently, infertility treatment is much more accessible to couples with higher incomes. However, grants and funding sources are available for lower income couples seeking infertility treatment as well. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/08%3A_Early_Adulthood/8.02%3A_Physical_Development.txt |
Beyond Formal Operational Thought: Post-formal Thought
In our last lesson, we discussed formal operational thought. The hallmark of this type of thinking is the ability to think abstractly or to consider possibilities and ideas about circumstances never directly experienced. Thinking abstractly is only one characteristic of adult thought, however. If you compare a 15 year old with someone in their late 30s, you would probably find that the later considers not only what is possible, but also what is likely. Why the change? The adult has gained experience and understands why possibilities do not always become realities. This difference in adult and adolescent thought can spark arguments between the generations. Here is an example. A student in her late 30s relayed such an argument she was having with her 14 year old son. The son had saved a considerable amount of money and wanted to buy an old car and store it in the garage until he was old enough to drive. He could sit in it; pretend he was driving, clean it up, and show it to his friends. It sounded like a perfect opportunity. The mother, however, had practical objections. The car could just sit for several years without deteriorating. The son would certainly change his mind about the type of car he wanted before he was old enough to drive and they would be stuck with a car that would not run. Having a car nearby would be too much temptation and the son might decide to sneak it out for a quick run around the block, etc.
Postformal thought is practical, realistic and more individualistic. As a person approaches the late 30s, chances are they make decisions out of necessity or because of prior experience and are less influenced by what others think. Of course, this is particularly true in individualistic cultures such as the United States.
Dialectical Thought
In addition to moving toward more practical considerations, thinking in early adulthood may also become more flexible and balanced. Abstract ideas that the adolescent believes in firmly may become standards by which the adult evaluates reality. Adolescents tend to think in dichotomies; ideas are true or false; good or bad; right or wrong and there is no middle ground. However, with experience, the adult comes to recognize that there is some right and some wrong in each position, some good or some bad in a policy or approach, some truth and some falsity in a particular idea. This ability to bring together salient aspects of two opposing viewpoints or positions is referred to as dialectical thought and is considered one of the most advanced aspects of postformal thinking (Basseches, 1984). Such thinking is more realistic because very few positions, ideas, situations, or people are completely right or wrong. So, for example, parents who were considered angels or devils by the adolescent eventually become just people with strengths and weaknesses, endearing qualities and faults to the adult.
Educational Concerns
In 2005, 37 percent of people in the United States between 18 and 24 had some college or an associate degree; about 30 percent of people between 25 and 34 had completed an education at the bachelor’s level or higher (U. S. Bureau of the Census, 2005). Of current concern is the relationship between higher education and the workplace. Bok (2005), American educator and Harvard University President, calls for a closer alignment between the goals of educators and the demands of the economy. Companies outsource much of their work, not only to save costs, but to find workers with the skills they need. What is required to do well in today’s economy? Colleges and universities, he argues, need to promote global awareness, critical thinking skills, the ability to communicate, moral reasoning, and responsibility in their students (Bok, 2006). Regional accrediting agencies and state organizations provide similar guidelines for educators. Workers need skills in listening, reading, writing, speaking, global awareness, critical thinking, civility, and computer literacy-all skills that enhance success in the workplace. The U. S. Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings challenges colleges and universities to demonstrate their effectiveness in providing these skills to students and to work toward increasing America’s competitiveness in the global economy (U. S. Department of Education, 2006).
A quality education is more than a credential. Being able to communicate and work well with others is crucial for success. There is some evidence to suggest that most workers who lose their jobs do so because of an inability to work with others, not because they do not know how to do their jobs (Cascio, in Berger 2005). Writing, reading, being able to work with a diverse work team, and having the social skills required to be successful in a career and in society are qualities that go beyond merely earning a credential to compete for a job. Employers must select employees who are not only degreed, but who will be successful in the work environment. Hopefully, students gain these skills as they pursue their degrees. Listen to this story about the lack of rigor in higher education and the problems students face as a result: A Lack Of Rigor Leaves Students ‘Adrift’ In College. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/08%3A_Early_Adulthood/8.03%3A_Cognitive_Development.txt |
Gaining Adult Status
Many of the developmental tasks of early adulthood involve becoming part of the adult world and gaining independence. Young adults sometimes complain that they are not treated with respect-especially if they are put in positions of authority over older workers. Consequently, young adults may emphasize their age to gain credibility from those who are even slightly younger. “You’re only 23? I’m 27!” a young adult might exclaim. (Note: This kind of statement is much less likely to come from someone in their 40s!).
The focus of early adulthood is often on the future. Many aspects of life are on hold while people go to school, go to work, and prepare for a brighter future. There may be a belief that the hurried life now lived will improve ‘as soon as I finish school’ or ‘as soon as I get promoted’ or ‘as soon as the children get a little older.’ As a result, time may seem to pass rather quickly. The day consists of meeting many demands that these tasks bring. The incentive for working so hard is that it will all result in better future.
Levinson’s Theory
In 1978, Daniel Levinson published a book entitled The Seasons of a Man’s Life in which he presented a theory of development in adulthood. Levinson’s work was based on in-depth interviews with 40 men between the ages of 35-45. He later conducted interviews with women as well (1996). According to Levinson, these adults have an image of the future that motivates them. This image is called “the dream” and for the men interviewed, it was a dream of how their career paths would progress and where they would be at midlife. Women held a “split dream”; an image of the future in both work and family life and a concern with the timing and coordination of the two. Dreams are very motivating. Dreams of a home bring excitement to couples as they look, save, and fantasize about how life will be. Dreams of careers motivate students to continue in school as they fantasize about how much their hard work will pay off. Dreams of playgrounds on a summer day inspire would be parents. A dream is perfect and retains that perfection as long as it remains in the future. But as the realization of it moves closer, it may or may not measure up to its image. If it does, all is well. But if it does not, the image must be replaced or modified. And so, in adulthood, plans are made, efforts follow, and plans are reevaluated. This creating and recreating characterizes Levinson’s theory.
Levinson’s stages are presented below (Levinson, 1978). He suggests that period of transition last about 5 years and periods of “settling down” last about 7 years. The ages presented below are based on life in the middle class about 30 years ago. Think about how these ages and transitions might be different today.
• Early adult transition (17-22): Leaving home, leaving family; making first choices about career and education
• Entering the adult world (22-28): Committing to an occupation, defining goals, finding intimate relationships
• Age 30 transition (28-33): Reevaluating those choices and perhaps making modifications or changing one’s attitude toward love and work
• Settling down (33 to 40): Reinvesting in work and family commitments; becoming involved in the community
• Midlife transition (40-45): Reevaluating previous commitments; making dramatic changes if necessary; giving expression to previously ignored talents or aspirations; feeling more of a sense of urgency about life and its meaning
• Entering middle adulthood (45-50): Committing to new choices made and placing one’s energies into these commitments
Adulthood, then, is a period of building and rebuilding one’s life. Many of the decisions that are made in early adulthood are made before a person has had enough experience to really understand the consequences of such decisions. And, perhaps, many of these initial decisions are made with one goal in mind-to be seen as an adult. As a result, early decisions may be driven more by the expectations of others. For example, imagine someone who chose a career path based on other’s advice but now find that the job is not what was expected. The age 30 transition may involve recommitting to the same job, not because it’s stimulating, but because it pays well. Settling down may involve settling down with a new set of expectations for that job. As the adult gains status, he or she may be freer to make more independent choices. And sometimes these are very different from those previously made. The midlife transition differs from the age 30 transition in that the person is more aware of how much time has gone by and how much time is left. This brings a sense of urgency and impatience about making changes. The future focus of early adulthood gives way to an emphasis on the present in midlife. (We will explore this in our next lesson.) Overall, Levinson calls our attention to the dynamic nature of adulthood.
Exercise:
How well do you think Levinson’s theory translates culturally? Do you think that personal desire and a concern with reconciling dreams with the realities of work and family is equally important in all cultures? Do you think these considerations are equally important in all social classes, races and ethnic groups? Why or why not? How might this model be modified in today’s economy?
Erikson’s Theory
Intimacy vs. Isolation
Erikson believed that the main task of early adulthood was to establish intimate relationships. Intimate relationships are more difficult if one is still struggling with identity. Achieving a sense of identity is a life-long process, but there are periods of identity crisis and stability. And having some sense of identify is essential for intimate relationships. In early adulthood, intimacy (or emotional or psychological closeness) comes from friendships and mates.
Friendships as a source of intimacy
In our twenties, intimacy needs may be met in friendships rather than with partners. This is especially true in the United States today as many young adults postpone making long-term commitments to partners either in marriage or in cohabitation. The kinds of friendships shared by women tend to differ from those shared by men (Tannen, 1990). Friendships between men are more likely to involve sharing information, providing solutions, or focusing on activities rather than discussion problems or emotions. Men tend to discuss opinions or factual information or spend time together in an activity of mutual interest. Friendships between women are more likely to focus on sharing weaknesses, emotions, or problems. Women talk about difficulties they are having in other relationships and express their sadness, frustrations, and joys. These differences in approaches lead to problems when men and women come together. She may want to vent about a problem she is having; he may want to provide a solution and move on to some activity. But when he offers a solution, she thinks he does not care!
Friendships between men and women become more difficult because of the unspoken question about whether the friendships will lead to a romantic involvement. It may be acceptable to have opposite-sex friends as an adolescent, but once a person begins dating or marries; such friendships can be considered threatening. Consequently, friendships may diminish once a person has a partner or single friends may be replaced with couple friends.
Partners as a source of intimacy: Dating, Cohabitation, and Mate Selection
Dating
In general, traditional dating among teens and those in their early twenties has been replaced with more varied and flexible ways of getting together. The Friday night date with dinner and a movie that may still be enjoyed by those in their 30s gives way to less formal, more spontaneous meetings that may include several couples or a group of friends. Two people may get to know each other and go somewhere alone. How would you describe a “typical” date? Who calls? Who pays? Who decides where to go? What is the purpose of the date? In general, greater planning is required for people who have additional family and work responsibilities. Teens may simply have to negotiate getting out of the house and carving out time to be with friends.
Cohabitation or Living Together
How prevalent is cohabitation? There are over 5 million heterosexual cohabiting couples in the United States and, an additional 594,000 same-sex couples share households (U. S. Census Bureau, 2006). In 2000, 9 percent of women and 12 percent of men were in cohabiting relationships (Bumpass in Casper & Bianchi, 2002). This number reflects only those couples who were together when census data were collected, however. The number of cohabiting couples in the United States today is over 10 times higher than it was in 1960.
Similar increases have also occurred in other industrialized countries. For example, rates are high in Great Britain, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. In fact, more children in Sweden are born to cohabiting couples than to married couples. The lowest rates of cohabitation are in Ireland, Italy, and Japan (Benokraitis, 2005).
How long do cohabiting relationships last?
Cohabitation tends to last longer in European countries than in the United States. Half of cohabiting relationships in the U. S. end within a year; only 10 percent last more than 5 years. These short-term cohabiting relationships are more characteristics of people in their early 20s. Many of these couples eventually marry. Those who cohabit more than five years tend to be older and more committed to the relationship. Cohabitation may be preferable to marriage for a number of reasons. For partners over 65, cohabitation is preferable to marriage for practical reasons. For many of them, marriage would result in a loss of Social Security benefits and consequently is not an option. Others may believe that their relationship is more satisfying because they are not bound by marriage. Consider this explanation from a 62-year old woman who was previously in a long-term, dissatisfying marriage. She and her partner live in New York but spend winters in South Texas at a travel park near the beach. “There are about 20 other couples in this park and we are the only ones who aren’t married. They look at us and say, ‘I wish we were so in love’. I don’t want to be like them.” (Author’s files.) Or another couple who have been happily cohabiting for over 12 years. Both had previously been in bad marriages that began as long-term, friendly, and satisfying relationships. But after marriage, these relationships became troubled marriages. These happily cohabiting partners stated that they believe that there is something about marriage that “ruins a friendship”.
The majority of people who cohabit are between the ages of 25-44. Only about 20 percent of those who cohabit are under age 24. Cohabitation among younger adults tends to be short-lived. Relationships between older adults tend to last longer.
Why do people cohabit?
People cohabit for a variety of reasons. The largest number of couples in the United States engages in premarital cohabitation. These couples are testing the relationship before deciding to marry. About half of these couples eventually get married. The second most common type of cohabitation is dating cohabitation. These partnerships are entered into for fun or convenience and involve less commitment than premarital cohabitation. About half of these partners break up and about one-third eventually marry. Trial marriage is a type of cohabitation in which partners are trying to see what it might be like to be married. They are not testing the other person as a potential mate, necessarily; rather, they are trying to find out how being married might feel and what kinds of adjustments they might have to make. Over half of these couples split up. In the substitute marriage, partners are committed to one another and are not necessarily seeking marriage. Forty percent of these couples continue to cohabit after 5 to 7 years (Bianchi & Casper, 2000). Certainly, there are other reasons people cohabit. Some cohabit out of a feeling of insecurity or to gain freedom from someone else (Ridley, C. Peterman, D. & Avery, A., 1978). And many cohabit because they cannot legally marry.
Same-Sex Couples
Same sex marriage is legal in 21 countries, including the United States. Many other countries either recognize same-sex couples for the purpose of immigration, grant rights for domestic partnerships, or grant common law marriage status to same-sex couples.
Photo Courtesy Salvor Gissurardottir
Same sex couples struggle with concerns such as the division of household tasks, finances, sex, and friendships as do heterosexual couples. One difference between same sex and heterosexual couples, however, is that same sex couples have to live with the added stress that comes from social disapproval and discrimination. And continued contact with an ex-partner may be more likely among homosexuals and bisexuals because of closeness of the circle of friends and acquaintances.
Mate-Selection
Contemporary young adults in the United States are waiting longer than before to marry. The median age of first marriage is 25 for women and 27 for men. This reflects a dramatic increase in age of first marriage for women, but the age for men is similar to that found in the late 1800s. Marriage is being postponed for college and starting a family often takes place after a woman has completed her education and begun a career. However, the majority of women will eventually marry (Bianchi & Casper, 2000).
Social exchange theory suggests that people try to maximize rewards and minimize costs in social relationships. Each person entering the marriage market comes equipped with assets and liabilities or a certain amount of social currency with which to attract a prospective mate. For men, assets might include earning potential and status while for women, assets might include physical attractiveness and youth.
A Fair Exchange
Customers in the market do not look for a ‘good deal’, however. Rather, most look for a relationship that is mutually beneficial or equitable. One of the reasons for this is because most a relationship in which one partner has far more assets than the other will result if power disparities and a difference in the level of commitment from each partner. According to Waller’s principle of least interest, the partner who has the most to lose without the relationship (or is the most dependent on the relationship) will have the least amount of power and is in danger of being exploited. A greater balance of power, then, may add stability to the relationship.
Homogamy and the filter theory of mate selection: Societies specify through both formal and informal rules who is an appropriate mate. Consequently, mate selection is not completely left to the individual. Rules of endogamy indicate within which groups we should marry. For example, many cultures specify that people marry within their own race, social class, age group, or religion. These rules encourage homogamy or marriage between people who share social characteristics. The majority of marriages in the U. S. are homogamous with respect to race, social class, age and to a lesser extent, religion. Rules of exogamy specify the groups into which one is prohibited from marrying. For example, in most of the United States, people are not allowed to marry someone of the same sex.
According to the filter theory of mate selection (Kerckhoff & Davis, 1962), the pool of eligible partners becomes narrower as it passes through filters used to eliminate members of the pool. One such filter is propinquity or geographic proximity. Mate selection in the United States typically involves meeting eligible partners face to face. Those with whom one does not come into contact are simply not contenders. Race and ethnicity is another filter used to eliminate partners. Although interracial dating has increased in recent years and interracial marriage rates are higher than before, interracial marriage still represents only 5.4 percent of all marriages in the United States. Physical appearance is another feature considered when selecting a mate. Age, social class, and religion are also criteria used to narrow the field of eligibles. Thus, the field of eligibles becomes significantly smaller before those things we are most conscious of such as preferences, values, goals, and interests, are even considered.
Online Relationships
What impact does the internet have on the pool of eligibles? There are hundreds of websites designed to help people meet. Some of these are geared toward helping people find suitable marriage partners and others focus on less committed involvements. Websites focus on specific populations-big beautiful women, Christian motorcyclists, parents without partners, and people over 50, etc. Theoretically, the pool of eligibles is much larger as a result. However, many who visit sites are not interested in marriage; many are already married. And so if a person is looking for a partner online, the pool must be filtered again to eliminate those who are not seeking long-term relationships. While this is true in the traditional marriage market as well, knowing a person’s intentions and determining the sincerity of their responses becomes problematic online.
Photo Courtesy Vikram Kharvi
This young man offers his picture and a description of his professional status and stability. While he’s looking for employment, his ad might also help him find an eligible partner online.
Online communication differs from face-to-face interaction in a number of ways. In face-to-face meetings, people have many cues upon which to base their first impressions. A person’s looks, voice, mannerisms, dress, scent, and surroundings all provide information in face-to-face meetings. But in computer- mediated meetings, written messages are the only cues provided. Fantasy is used to conjure up images of voice, physical appearance, mannerisms, and so forth. The anonymity of online involvement makes it easier to become intimate without fear of interdependence. It is easier to tell one’s secrets because there is little fear of loss. One can find a virtual partner who is warm, accepting, and undemanding (Gwinnell, 1998). And exchanges can be focused more on emotional attraction than physical appearance.
When online, people tend to disclose more intimate details about themselves more quickly. A shy person can open up without worrying about whether or not the partner is frowning or looking away. And someone who has been abused may feel safer in virtual relationships. None of the worries of home or work get in the way of the exchange. The partner can be given one’s undivided attention, unlike trying to have a conversation on the phone with a houseful of others or at work between duties. Online exchanges take the place of the corner café as a place to relax, have fun, and be you (Brooks, 1997). However, breaking up or disappearing is also easier. A person can simply not respond, or block e-mail.
But what happens if the partners meet face to face? People often complain that pictures they have been provided of the partner are misleading. And once couples begin to think more seriously about the relationship, the reality of family situations, work demands, goals, timing, values, and money all add new dimensions to the mix. Next we will turn our attention to theories of love. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/08%3A_Early_Adulthood/8.04%3A_Psychosocial_Development.txt |
Sternberg’s Triangle of Love: Three Components
Sternberg (1988) suggests that there are three main components of love: passion, intimacy, and commitment. Love relationships vary depending on the presence or absence of each of these components. Passion refers to the intense, physical attraction partners feel toward one another. Intimacy involves the ability the share feelings, personal thoughts and psychological closeness with the other. Commitment is the conscious decision to stay together. Passion can be found in the early stages of a relationship, but intimacy takes time to develop because it is based on knowledge of the partner. Once intimacy has been established, partners may resolve to stay in the relationship. Although many would agree that all three components are important to a relationship, many love relationships do not consist of all three. Let’s look at other possibilities.
Image shows the 3 properties of love and how it creates the 7 different loves according to theory. (Public Domain; AnonMoos).
Liking: In this relationship, intimacy or knowledge of the other and a sense of closeness is present. Passion and commitment, however, are not. Partners feel free to be themselves and disclose personal information. They may feel that the other person knows them well and can be honest with them and let them know if they think the person is wrong. These partners are friends. However, being told that your partner ‘thinks of you as a friend’ can be a devastating blow if you are attracted to them and seek a romantic involvement.
Infatuation: Perhaps, this is Sternberg’s version of “love at first sight”. Infatuation consists of an immediate, intense physical attraction to someone. A person who is infatuated finds it hard to think of anything but the other person. Brief encounters are played over and over in one’s head; it may be difficult to eat and there may be a rather constant state of arousal. Infatuation is rather short-lived, however, lasting perhaps only a matter of months or as long as a year or so. It tends to be based on chemical attraction and an image of what one thinks the other is all about.
Fatuous Love: However, some people who have a strong physical attraction push for commitment early in the relationship. Passion and commitment are aspects of fatuous love. There is no intimacy and the commitment is premature. Partners rarely talk seriously or share their ideas. They focus on their intense physical attraction and yet one, or both, is also talking of making a lasting commitment. Sometimes this is out of a sense of insecurity and a desire to make sure the partner is locked into the relationship.
Empty Love: This type of love may be found later in a relationship or in a relationship that was formed to meet needs other than intimacy or passion (money, childrearing, status). Here the partners are committed to staying in the relationship (for the children, because of a religious conviction, or because there are no alternatives perhaps), but do not share ideas or feelings with each other and have no physical attraction for one another.
Romantic Love: Intimacy and passion are components of romantic love, but there is no commitment. The partners spend much time with one another and enjoy their closeness but have not made plans to continue ‘no matter what’. This may be true because they are not in a position to make such commitments or because they are looking for passion and closeness and are afraid it will die out if they commit to one another and start to focus on other kinds of obligations.
Companionate Love: Intimacy and commitment are the hallmarks of companionate love. Partners love and respect one another and they are committed to staying together. But their physical attraction may have never been strong or may have just died out. This may be interpreted as ‘just the way things are’ after so much time together or there may be a sense of regret and loss. Nevertheless, partners are good friends committed to one another.
Consummate Love: Intimacy, passion, and commitment are present in consummate love. This is often the ideal type of love. The couple shares passion; the spark has not died, and the closeness is there. They feel like best friends as well as lovers and they are committed to staying together.
Types of Lovers
Lee (1973) offers a theory of love styles or types of lovers derived from an analysis of writings about love through the centuries. As you read these, think about how these styles might become part of the types of love described above.
• Pragma is a style of love that emphasizes the practical aspects of love. The pragmatic lover considers compatibility and the sensibility of their choice of partners. This lover will be concerned with goals in life, status, family reputation, attitudes about parenting, career issues and other practical concerns.
• Mania is a style of love characterized by volatility, insecurity, and possessiveness. This lover gets highly upset during arguments or breakups, may have trouble sleeping when in love, and feels emotions very intensely.
• Agape is an altruistic, selfless love. These partners give of themselves without expecting anything in return. Such a lover places the partner’s happiness above their own and is self-sacrificing to benefit the partner.
• Eros is an erotic style of loving in which the person feels consumed. Physical chemistry and emotional involvement are important to this type of lover.
• Ludus refers to a style of loving that emphasizes the game of seduction and fun. Such a lover stays away from commitment and often has several love interests at the same time. This lover does not self-disclose and in fact may prefer to keep the other guessing. This lover can end a relationship easily.
• Storge is a style of love that develops slowly over time. It often begins as a friendship and becomes sexual much later. These partners are likely to remain friends even after the breakup.
Frames of Relationships
A H M
Another useful way to consider relationships is to consider the amount of dependency in the relationship. Davidson (1991) suggests three models. The A-frame relationship is one in which the partners lean on one another and are highly dependent on the other for survival. If one partner changes, the other is at risk of ‘falling over’. This type of relationship cannot easily accommodate change and the partners are vulnerable should change occur. A breakup could be devastating.
The H-frame relationship is one in which the partners live parallel lives. They rarely spend time with one another and tend to have separate lives. What time they do share is usually spent meeting obligations rather than sharing intimacies. This independent type of relationship can end without suffering emotionally.
The M-frame relationship is interdependent. Partners have a strong sense of connection but also are able to stand alone without suffering devastation. If this relationship ends, partners will be hurt and saddened, but will still be able to stand alone. This ability comes from a strong sense of self-love. Partners can love each other without losing a sense of self. And each individual has self-respect and confidence that enriches the relationship as well as strengthens the self.
We have been looking at love in the context of many kinds of relationships. In our next lesson, we will focus more specifically on marital relationships. But before we do, we examine the dynamics of falling in and out of love.
The Process of Love and Breaking Up
Reiss (1960) provides a theory of love as process. Based on the wheel theory of love, love relationships begin with the establishment of rapport.
Rapport involves sharing likes, preferences, establishing some common interests. The next step is to begin to disclose more personal information through self-revelation. When one person begins to open up, the social expectation is that the other will follow and also share more personal information so that each has made some risk and trust is built. Sexual intimacy may also become part of the relationship. Gradually, partners begin to disclose even more about themselves and are met with support and acceptance as they build mutual dependency. With time, partners come to rely on each other for need fulfillment. The wheel must continue in order for love to last. It becomes important for partners to continue to establish rapport by discussing the day’s events, communicating about their goals and desires, and showing signs of trust. Partners must continue to rely on one another to have certain needs fulfilled. If the wheel turns backward, partners talk less and less, rely less on one another and are less likely to disclose.
Process of Disaffection: Breaking Up
When relationships are new, partners tend to give one another the benefit of the doubt and focus on what they like about one another. Flaws and imperfections do not go unnoticed; rather, they are described as endearing qualities. So, for example, the partner who has a very large nose is described as ‘distinguished’ or as having a ‘striking feature.’ This is very exhilarating because features that someone may have previously felt self-conscious about are now accepted or even appreciated. However, once partners begin the process of breaking up, these views are abandoned and questionable qualities are once again flaws and imperfections.
Kersten (1990) provides a look at the dynamics of breaking up. Although this work is primarily about divorce, the dynamics of dissolving any long-term relationship are similar. The beginning phase of breaking up involves seeing imperfections in the relationship but remaining hopeful that things will improve. This improvement will require the partner’s cooperation because they are primarily at fault. So, as long as the offending partner makes the necessary changes, and of course the offended partner will provide the advice, support, and guidance required, the relationship will continue. (If you are thinking that this is not going to work-you are right. Attempts to change one’s partner are usually doomed to failure. Would you want your partner to try to change you?)
Once it becomes clear that efforts to change are futile, the middle phase is entered. This phase is marked by disappointment. Partners talk less and less, make little eye contact, and grow further apart. One may still try to make contact, but the other is clearly disengaged and is considering the benefits and costs of leaving the relationship.
In the end phase, the decision to leave has been made. The specific details are being worked out. Turning a relationship around is very difficult at this point. Trust has diminished, and thoughts have turned elsewhere. This stage is one of hopelessness.
We will explore marriage, divorce, and cohabitation more fully in our next lesson. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/08%3A_Early_Adulthood/8.05%3A_Types_of_Love.txt |
Introduction
So what is your love style? Your authors discussed several types of love in the text, including John Lee’s six love types. The Love Attitude Scale, created by Clyde Hendrick and Susan Hendrick, measures your attitudes about each of the styles.
Directions
For each of the following statements, write the number (1-5) that most nearly describes your attitude or belief. Some of the items refer to a specific love relationship, while others refer to general attitudes and beliefs about love. Whenever possible, answer the questions with your current partner in mind. If you are not currently dating anyone, answer the questions with your most recent partner in mind. If you have never been in love, answer in terms of what you think your responses would most likely be.
For even more insight, make a copy of the questions and have your current partner complete them also. Answer the questions independently of each other and then compare your scores.
After looking at your style, type a paragraph in which you answer the following questions:
• Does these scores surprise you? Why or why not?
• What would you consider the advantages and disadvantages of these styles to be?
• What styles do you think would be most common in adolescence? Early adulthood? Adulthood? Why?
The code for the rating to be used for each statement is as follows:
SD = STRONGLY disagree D = Disagree N = Neutral A = Agree SA = STRONGLY agree
SD D N A SA
1 2 3 4 5
1. My lover and I were attracted to each other immediately after we first met
2. I try to keep my lover a little uncertain about my commitment to him/her.
3. It is hard to say exactly where friendship ends and love begins.
4. I consider what a person is going to become in life before I commit myself to him/her.
5. When things aren’t right with my lover and me, my stomach gets upset.
6. I try to always help my lover through difficult times.
7. My lover and I have the right physical “chemistry” between us.
8. I believe that what my lover doesn’t know about me won’t hurt him/her.
9. Genuine love first requires caring for a while.
10. I try to plan my life carefully before choosing a lover.
11. When my love affairs break up, I get so depressed.
12. I would rather suffer myself than let my lover suffer.
13. Our lovemaking is very intense and satisfying.
14. I have sometimes had to keep two of my lovers from finding out about each other.
15. I expect to always be friends with the one I love.
16. It is best to love someone with a similar background.
17. Sometimes I get so excited about being in love that I can’t sleep.
18. I cannot be happy unless I place my lover’s happiness before my own.
19. I feel that my lover and I were meant for each other.
20. I can get over love affairs pretty easily and quickly.
21. The best kind of love grows out of a long friendship.
22. A main consideration in choosing a lover is how he/she reflects on my family.
23. When my lover doesn’t pay attention to me, I feel sick all over.
24. I am usually willing to sacrifice my own wishes to let my lover achieve his/hers.
25. My lover and I became emotionally involved rather quickly.
26. My lover would get upset if he/she knew of some of the things I’ve done with other people.
27. Our friendship merged gradually into love over time.
28. An important factor in choosing a partner is whether or not he/she will be a good parent.
29. When I am in love, I have trouble concentrating.
30. Whatever I own is my lover’s to use as he/she chooses.
31. My lover and I really understand each other.
32. When my lover gets too dependent on me, I want to back off a little.
33. Love is really a deep friendship, not a mysterious, mystical emotion.
34. One consideration in choosing a partner is how he/she will reflect on my career.
35. I cannot relax if I suspect that my lover is with someone else.
36. When my lover gets angry with me, I still love Him/her fully and unconditionally.
37. My lover fits my ideal standards of physical beauty/handsomeness.
38. I enjoy playing the “game of love” with a number is different partners.
39. My most satisfying love relationships have developed from good friendships.
40. Before getting very involved with anyone, I try to figure out how compatible his/her hereditary background is with mine in case we ever have children.
41. If my lover ignores me for a while, I do stupid things to get his/her attention back.
42. I would endure all things for the sake of my lover.
Source: Hendrick, C and Hendrick, S. (1986). “A theory and method of love.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 2, 392-402. Reprinted with permission of the American Psychological Association.
Love Attitude Scale — Scoring Instructions
The higher the score, the stronger you are on this love style
Scoring:
Eros: Add up all the numbers you circled for items 1, 7, 13, 19, 25, 31, and 37.
Eros Score: _____
Ludus: Add up all the numbers you circled for items 2, 8, 14, 20, 26, 32, and 38.
Ludus Score: _____
Storge: Add up all the numbers you circled for items 3, 9, 15, 21, 27, 33, and 39.
Storge Score: _____
Pragma: Add up all the numbers you circled for items 4, 10, 16, 22, 28, 34, and 40.
Pragma Score: _____
Mania: Add up all the numbers you circled for items 5, 11, 17, 23, 29, 35, and 41.
Mania Score: _____
Agape: Add up all the numbers you circled for items 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, and 42.
Agape Score: _____
8.07: Love Styles
After studying Lee’s Love Styles, answer the Love Styles questionnaire you see in this week’s lessons. Compute your scores and then answer the following questions. (Post your answers and respond to at least one other person.)
• Do these scores surprise you? Why or why not?
• What would you consider the advantages and disadvantages of these styles to be?
• What styles do you think would be most common in adolescence? Early adulthood? Adulthood? Why?
8.08: Adolescence and Early Adulthood
Choose two of the following:
1. Examine how cultural ideals and timing of puberty can affect an adolescent’s body image.
2. Question Erikson’s assertion about the focus on intimacy in early adulthood.
3. Apply Sternberg’s theory of love to specific examples of relationships from song or media.
4. Discuss social problems facing youth such as suicide, juvenile delinquency, and victimization. What kinds of recommendations would you make to help reduce these problems? | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/08%3A_Early_Adulthood/8.06%3A_Love_Attitude_Scale.txt |
Lecture Transcript
Here we are in early adulthood. This is the period of life when we are in our 20s and 30s.
First, a look at physical development.
If you are in your early 20s, you are enjoying your physiological peak. You may have more energy, endurance, and reproductive ability than at any other time in your life. Enjoy! In our 30s, we experience a slow, gradual decline in some abilities. One of the first noticeable signs of this is a loss of lung reserve capacity. If you exert yourself, you may notice that it takes longer to reach your normal breathing and heart rate than before. Most of this decline is due to a lack of exercise rather than aging alone, however. Busy lives in early adulthood sometimes means less time for working on physical fitness.
Men may reach their peak of sexual responsiveness in their late teens and early 20s. They can achieve an erection more easily at this period of life. Women may become more sexually responsive as they move through early adulthood. This may be because they become less self-conscious or more confident or comfortable than before.
About 10 to 15 percent of people who are of reproductive age experience infertility. Half of the time this may be due to the male having a low sperm count or not producing enough healthy sperm with enough motility to reach the egg. Half of the time the reason for infertility is because the female doesn’t ovulate or has pelvic inflammatory disease or some other blockage in the reproductive tract. About a third of couples conceive eventually without treatment. Treatment helps couples conceive about half of the time.
Most fertility treatment is the use of drugs to stimulate ovulation. Five percent of fertility treatment involves in vitro fertilization where sperm cells fertilize the egg outside the body and the zygote is transferred to the uterus. In vitro fertilization has about a 5 to 30 percent success rate. The more closely the procedure can mimic normal fertilization, the higher the success rate. Gamete intra-fallopian transfer involves transferring sperm and egg into the fallopian tube where conception typically occurs. A small percentage of couples use zygote intra-fallopian transfer in which the fertilized egg is transferred to the fallopian tube to continue its journey to the uterus.
Even though early adulthood is a peak for physiological condition, it’s also a time vulnerable to societal risks. Drug abuse peaks between 19 and 22 as people transition into adulthood. Rates fall after these years. However, the use of intoxicants is associated with acquaintance rape and contracting sexually transmitted infections. It also increases the risk of death due to homicide, motor vehicle accidents, and suicide.
Here are some comparisons of violent deaths by sex and ethnic category taken from the National Center for Health Statistics. We can see first that risk is higher for males than for females in all ethnic categories. Homicide rates are particularly high for black males and suicide rates are particularly high for Native American males.
The brain continues to develop during early adulthood. How does thinking change in this period?
Have you ever heard a conversation between a 14 year old and someone in their mid-thirties? If it’s a parent and child, you may have heard the 14 year old enthusiastically describe a plan of action while the 35 year old was quick to explain why the plan was unreasonable. This practical, realistic approach is the hallmark of postformal thinking. Postformal thinking is abstract, realistic, and personal. In early adulthood, we become less concerned with what our peers think and experience reveals what is likely to happen. Not just what is possible.
Dialectical thought is another feature of adult thought. While an adolescent may tend to think in either/or categories, the adult may begin to understand that there are strengths and weaknesses in both sides of an argument. Being able to take what is salient from both sides of opposing viewpoints and to synthesize the two into a personalized view is referred to as dialectical thought. Education promotes this when it entails exploring various positions on a topic. In our personal life, dialectical thought may result in greater tolerance of others with the recognition that no one is perfect.
One concern over higher education is its relationship to the workplace. Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University, suggests that colleges and the workplace should be more closely aligned. The workplace needs people who are aware of global issues, who have effective communicative skills, and who have a sense of integrity or moral reasoning to offer the workplace. Universities and colleges need to address these issues. Higher education has also been criticized for graduating students who do not have critical thinking skills or adequate writing skills.
Now we take a look at the social world of early adulthood.
Havighurst provides a list of developmental tasks in early adulthood. These include achieving a sense of independence or learning how to be on one’s own, achieving a sense of identity, emotional stability, beginning a career, engaging in intimate relationships, learning how to participate in the community, establishing one’s own residence, and perhaps becoming parents. If you are in this age group and you find you days quite busy or even exhausting, it’s certainly understandable!
One reason for engaging in such busy demands is because we feel that in the future, all will pay off. Many of our decisions are designed to show benefits later in adulthood. Young adults hope to be taken seriously as mature individuals and therefore may emphasize how old or experienced they are. They may also make decisions in order to earn the respect of others and to be viewed as adults.
Daniel Levinson offered one of the first studies of adult transitions. In the late 1970s, he published his work entitled Seasons of a Man’s Life in which he described the transitions men faced as they launched as young adults and moved through midlife. The early 20s was a time of adult transition and making plans for the future. These plans were implemented for the duration of the 20s, but were reevaluated as they approached their 30s. Some revisions might occur during this transition and carried out through a settling down period that followed. At midlife, these men compared what they thought their lives would be like, referred to as the dream, and how it really was. During the midlife transition, further adjustments such as career changes or changes in personal relationships could be made as well.
Erikson views early adulthood as a time of focusing on intimate relationships. Intimacy versus isolation.
Friendships can be one source of intimacy. Teens often have collections of friends of both sexes. But having opposite sexed friends becomes a bit more problematic once an intimate relationship has been established. As a result, males and females tend to have same-sex friendships. It’s been suggested that the friendships that males share are focused on information sharing, debate, and problem-solving. But females are more likely to discuss personal problems and relationship issues. Do you think this is true in all cultures?
Cohabitation refers to partners living together in an intimate relationship without being married. It’s estimated that there are about 7.5 million cohabiting couples in the United States. This reflects a 10 fold increase in the last 40 years. Of those, just under 800,000 are same-sex couples. In general, cohabiting relationships do not last as long as marriages. Cohabitation is a more permanent relationship in Europe. And with the decrease in remarriage rates and increase in cohabitation rates, the U. S. may become more similar to Europe in this regard. Younger partners tend to have shorter cohabiting relationships. Cohabitation continues to increase in the United States.
Why do people cohabit? Many cohabiting relationships are considered to be a temporary arrangement prior to marriage. These premarital cohabiting couples do intend to marry, but are living together prior to marriage for practical or emotional reasons. Dating cohabitation does not last very long. This cohabiting relationship is more like a long date where partners continue to spend time together as long as it is enjoyable. The trial marriage pattern is one in which partners try out a marital type of relationship by moving in together. They’re not really evaluating a particular partner; rather they are trying out the relationship of marriage. Some couple substitute cohabitation for marriage and have no intentions of marrying. Cohabitation is their preference, perhaps because they’ve had failed marriages in the past, are philosophically opposed to marriage, or do not want to marry for other practical or financial reasons. These relationships tend to last longer.
Same-sex couples can legally marry in Spain, Canada, Belgium, Argentina, Norway, Iceland, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Denmark. They can also legally marry in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia. The issues facing same-sex couples tend to be similar to those of heterosexual couples: concerns about money, household chores, leisure time, sex, and children. But they do have to face additional stressors of stigma from others. Same-sex partners tend to have a more equal distribution of power within the relationship than in heterosexual couples. And when couples break up, there is a greater likelihood of still having contact with the ex because of a closer same-sex community of friends.
Let’s explore mate selection. Although the age at first marriage has been steadily increasing in the United States, 25 for females and 27 for males, many do still marry while in early adulthood. One way to look at the mate selection process is to think of the marriage market as a place where social currency is exchanged. You bring with you a certain amount of social currency or qualities that make you a good potential make. And these are weighed against those things that might make you a less than ideal partner. This is taken into account when looking for a partner. Most of us do not want a “good deal” when making the exchange. Rather, we look for a fair exchange. This is because in relationships, the person with the least interest in the relationship has the most power. So if you want an equal distribution of power, you want both parties to need the relationship equally. The majority of marriages are homogamous with respect to social class, race, age, and religion. This similarity of social characteristics is referred to as homogamy. This selection is guided by social rules of endogamy (the expectation that you will marry within certain groups such as race and class), exogamy (the expectation that you will marry outside of other groups such as your sex), and propinquity or nearness. We tend to marry those who are near because those are the people we meet and with whom we socialize.
Let’s explore a few theories of love. Sternberg offers a triangular approach to love. Love has three elements, intimacy or psychological closeness, passion or physical attraction, and commitment or the conscious decision to stay together. Most of the problems people have in love relationships are about either intimacy, “We don’t talk.” passion, “We never hold each other anymore.” or commitment, “I can’t count on my partner to stay with me.”
We can analyze love relationships as having one or more of these elements. Liking is intimacy only. Infatuation is a relationship based on passion alone. Empty love is based solely on commitment. Romantic love includes both intimacy and passion. Companionate love is based on commitment and intimacy. Fatuous love is characterized by passion and commitment, but no intimacy. What do we want? The ideal in the west is consummate love. We want passion, commitment, and intimacy.
John Lee explored types of love or love styles found in literature. You can look at your own style by taking the questionnaire at the end of this lesson.
Pragma is practical love based on sensible qualities. Agape is a selfless love that has the other’s best interest at heart. Mania is possessive and insecure.
Eros is erotic love in which a person feels consumed. Ludus is carefree, nonpossessive, and based on seduction. Storge is based on friendship. What’s your love style?
Another way to look at relationships is to examine the extent to which partners are dependent or independent of one another. In the A frame relationship, partners lean on one another and there is little room for growth or change.
The H frame relationship finds partners quite independent of one another. Their lives are parallel and there is little connection between the two. The M frame relationship is marked by interdependence. Partners have a close couple connection, but also a sense of self or individuality.
Ira Reiss suggests that love is not stagnant. Rather, it depends on continuous interaction and renewal to be sustained. As a relationship begins, partners find out about one another and their common interests as they establish rapport. This is deepened with mutual sharing of more personal information through self-revelation. The relationship progresses as partners become more dependent on one another in day to day life. Eventually, the partners begin to rely on one another to fulfill their needs. But it doesn’t stop there. For love to continue, partners need to repeat the cycle and continue to establish rapport, engage in self-revelation, and be part of one another’s lives. When partners break up, the wheel begins to turn in the other direction. Partners talk less and gradually become disengaged.
Kirsten looks at the process of disaffection or the psychological experience of breaking up. Before breaking up, couples may engage in “little fictions” or in maintaining little lies about one another in order to help the person feel good about themselves and the relationship. Flaws are seen as endearing. We’re often quite forgiving and positive about our partners in the beginning. And what could be better than having someone love your flaws! But when undergoing the process of disaffection, partners become disenchanted with one another. Or perhaps, only one partner is becoming disappointed. In the beginning phase, this partner may begin to pull away psychologically or start to try to change the partner’s flaws. There may still be optimism about the future of the relationship . . . as long as the partner makes corrections. But in the middle phase, disappointment builds and there’s less optimism about the future of the relationship. In the end, a sense of hopelessness creeps in and the disappointed partner may begin to plan their departure.
In our next lesson, we will look at middle adulthood and expand upon adult relationships. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/08%3A_Early_Adulthood/8.09%3A_Early_Adulthood.txt |
Lifespan Psychology Module 7 Early Adulthood Powerpoint from Lumen Learning
8.11: Adolescence and Early Adulthood
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood
1. Define puberty. What kinds of changes occur during puberty?
2. What impacts the timing of puberty?
3. Describe the growth spurt.
4. Discuss changes in the teenage brain (review your notes over the film.)
5. Distinguish between primary and secondary sex characteristics and give examples of each.
6. What is spermarche? Menarche?
7. How do cultural ideals and timing impact adolescent body image?
8. Describe some nutritional concerns during adolescence.
9. What is anorexia? Bulimia?
10. What is the myth of mutuality? Who is most likely to suffer from sexual abuse?
11. Characterize teen drug use.
12. What is formal operational intelligence?
13. Define and give examples of adolescent egocentrism, the imaginary audience, the personal fable, and the invincibility fable.
14. How does Erikson characterize adolescence?
15. What is a psychosocial moratorium? What is foreclosure? Identity diffusion?
16. Contrast teens as offenders and as victims of crime.
17. Discuss teen suicide.
18. What do teens want from parents?
19. List the developmental tasks of early adulthood.
20. Explain how emerging adulthood is a health but risky time.
21. Explain Levinson’s theory of adulthood.
22. What is postformal thought? What is dialectical thought? What factors promote this?
23. Characterize cohabitation and types of cohabitation.
24. What is the median age of first marriage?
25. Explain social exchange theory of mate selection.
26. What is the principle of least interest?
27. Explain Sternberg’s dimensions of love.
28. List and describe Lee’s love styles.
29. Characterize frames of relationships.
30. Explain the wheel theory of love.
31. What is the “process of disaffection”? What happens in each stage?
8.12: Unit 3 Exam
1. Fourteen-year-old Monica is very idealistic and often develops crushes on people she doesn't even know. This reflects her newly developed cognitive ability to:
1. imagine possible worlds and people.
2. take another person's viewpoint.
3. deal simultaneously with two sides of an issue.
4. see herself as others see her.
2. The term menarche refers to:
1. first ovulation.
2. the growth of the uterus.
3. a girl's first menstrual period.
4. the start of estrogen production.
3. New research indicates changes in the teenage brain. What occurs?
1. There is a growth spurt in the prefrontal lobes of the brain.
2. The hippocampus shrinks substantially.
3. The circadian rhythm shifts making teens more alert in the morning.
4. The motor cortex doubles in size.
4. Which of the following is TRUE about puberty?
1. Only males experience lowered voices during puberty.
2. Both males and females may experience breast growth during puberty.
3. Teens typically gain about 20 pounds in weight during puberty.
4. Males have greater body image problems than do females.
5. Most teens in the United States have which problem with nutrition?
1. They have too much calcium in the diet.
2. They consume too many calories and inadequate nutrition.
3. They typically do not consume enough protein.
4. They have low sodium levels.
6. The substance that is most commonly used by youth in America today is:
1. Alcohol.
2. Vicodin.
3. Tobacco.
4. Marijuana.
7. Which of the following is TRUE of youth in the United States today?
1. Teen pregnancy rates are down.
2. Teen crime rates have increased sharply in the last 5 years.
3. Teen drop out rates are at an all time high.
4. Teens suicide rates have increased steadily since the 1970s.
8. Changes in secondary sex characteristics include ALL BUT WHICH ONE?
1. growth of the testes.
2. The development of pubic hair.
3. Breast development.
4. An accumulation of fat on the thighs and hips.
9. The invincibility fable refers to a teenager’s
1. belief that the body is indestructible.
2. feeling that everyone is watching their behavior.
3. belief that they are destined to be famous.
4. feeling that others do not understand how the teen feels.
10. Which of the following is TRUE concerning teens?
1. Teens are often the victims of violence.
2. Most types of teen crime are higher today than ever before.
3. There are more runaway teens than thrownaway teens.
4. Teen pregnancy rates are at an all-time high in the United States.
11. Bob helped his sports team win the state championship and now he thinks he may someday be famous. This reflects:
1. the invincibility fable.
2. egocentrism.
3. the personal fable.
4. the imaginary audience.
12. This type of love is self-centered and manipulative.
1. agape.
2. storge.
3. ludus.
4. companionate.
13. If you believe the principle of least interest, you can maximize your power:
1. by showing your partner how much you need him or her.
2. by having plenty of other options for other relationships.
3. by doing things to gain your partner’s interest in the relationship.
4. by being kind and loving.
14. Early adulthood is a time of:
1. peak physiological development.
2. thinking that you are destined to be famous.
3. worrying about what others think.
4. concrete operational thought.
15. This type of thought is associated with adulthood and education.
1. concrete operational thought.
2. dialectical thought.
3. preoperational thought.
4. existential thought. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/08%3A_Early_Adulthood/8.10%3A_Early_Adulthood.txt |
• 9.1: Introduction to Middle Adulthood
Middle adulthood (or midlife) refers to the period of the lifespan between young adulthood and old age. This period lasts from 20 to 40 years depending on how these stages, ages, and tasks are culturally defined. This may be the least studied period of the lifespan because it is a relatively new period of life. Life-expectancy has increased globally by about 6 years since 1990 and now stands at 68 years and ranges from 57 years in low-income countries to 80 in high-income countries.
• 9.2: Physical Development
There are few biologically based physical changes in midlife other than changes in vision, more joint pain, and weight gain. Consequently, midlife adults have to increase their level of exercise, eat less, and watch their nutrition to maintain their earlier physique. It becomes important for midlife adults to take preventative measures to enhance physical well-being.
• 9.3: Cognitive Development
Abstract reasoning in a particular field requires a knowledge base that we might not have in all areas. So our ability to think abstractly depends to a large extent on our experiences. Some adults lead patterned, orderly, lives in which they are not challenged to think abstractly about their world. When we work extensively in an area, we may gain expertise. An expert tends to perform actions in a more automatic fashion.
• 9.4: Psychosocial Development
Tasks of the midlife transition include 1) ending early adulthood; 2) reassessing life in the present and making modifications if needed; and 3) reconciling “polarities” or contradictions in ones sense of self. This new perspective on time brings about a new sense of urgency to life. The person becomes focused more on the present than the future or the past.
• 9.5: Relationships
Many of the research findings about singles reveal that they are not all alike. Happiness with one’s status depends on whether the person is single by choice and whether the situation is permanent. Intrinsic marriages are a relatively recent phenomenon arising out of the 20th century focus on romantic love as a basis for marriage and increased independence of the partners. Marriage today is viewed as less necessary for economic survival.
• 9.6: Work and Personality
A person may be at their peak of performance at work during this time. Connections between work units, companies, culture, and operations may be appreciated for the first time and with that, a midlife worker may be able to contribute to an organization in new, more comprehensive ways. Midlife may also be the peak time for earning and spending to meet the demands of launching children or caring for aging parents.
• 9.7: Middle Adulthood
• 9.8: Middle Adulthood
09: Middle Adulthood
Skills to Develop
• Explain trends in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy.
• List developmental tasks of midlife.
• Summarize physical changes that occur in midlife.
• Explain physical changes that occur during menopause.
• Describe variations in cultural responses to menopause.
• Contrast menopause and andropause.
• Explain the relationships between the climacteric and sexual expression.
• Discuss the impact of exercise on health in midlife.
• Describe the ideal diet for middle aged adults.
• Describe cognitive development in midlife.
• Compare midlife students with younger students and their approach to learning.
• Contrast the expert and the novice.
• Evaluate the notion of the midlife crisis.
• Define kinkeeping and the impact of caregiving.
• Describe Erikson’s stage of generativity vs. stagnation.
• Compare types of singles.
• Contrast intrinsic and utilitarian marriages.
• Classify types of marriages based on Cuber and Harroff’s model.
• Discuss communication in marriage.
• Describe the stations of divorce.
• Discuss issues related to re-coupling including remarriage and cohabitation.
• Describe personality changes in midlife.
• Discuss work related issues in midlife.
Introduction
Middle adulthood (or midlife) refers to the period of the lifespan between young adulthood and old age. This period lasts from 20 to 40 years depending on how these stages, ages, and tasks are culturally defined. The most common age definition is from 40 to 65, but there can be a range of up to 10 years (ages 30-75) on either side of these numbers. The mid-thirties or the forties through the late 60s can be our guide. Research on this period of life is relatively new and many aspects of midlife are still being explored. This may be the least studied period of the lifespan. And this is a varied group. We can see considerable differences in individuals within this developmental stage. There is much to learn about this group. In the United States, the large Baby Boom cohort (those born between 1946 and 1964) are now midlife adults and this has led to increased interest in this developmental stage.
This is a relatively new period of life. One hundred years ago, life expectancy in the United States was about 47 years. Life-expectancy has increased globally by about 6 years since 1990 and now stands at 68 years and ranges from 57 years in low-income countries to 80 in high-income countries (World Health Organization, 2011). This number reflects an increase in life expectancy in Africa due to availability of antiretroviral medications to reduce HIV/AIDS, and a decrease in Europe and in countries in the former Soviet Union. Life expectancy in the United States for those born in 2007 is now at 75.9 for white males, 80.8 for white females, 70.0 for black males, and 76.8 for black females (U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, 2010). The U. S. ranks 42nd in the world and has been declining in rank. Children born in the U. S. today may be the first generation to have a shorter life span than their parents. Much of this decline has been attributed to the increase in sedentary lifestyle and obesity. See the Washington Post article, U.S. Deaths Rise by 50,000 in 2005, for more details.
Of course, longevity is not the only consideration. How long can we expect to lead health lives? Healthy life expectancy, or the years one can expect to live in good health, is 67 for males and 71 for females in the United States. It is higher in Japan with a healthy life expectancy of 72 for males and 78 for females. Certainly, living healthier lives is the goal. In the United States, Canada, and other countries where people live well in midlife, there are new concerns are about the aging process, the impact of lifestyle on health, productivity at work, and how to best spend the second half of life.
Developmental Tasks
Lachman (2004) provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges facing midlife adults. These include:
1. Losing parents and experiencing associated grief.
2. Launching children into their own lives.
3. Adjusting to home life without children (often referred to as the empty nest).
4. Dealing with adult children who return to live at home (known as boomerang children in the United States).
5. Becoming grandparents.
6. Preparing for late adulthood.
7. Acting as caregivers for aging parents or spouses.
Let’s explore these tasks and this stage of life.
REFERENCES:
Anderson, S. A., & Sabatelli, R. M. (2007). Family interaction: A multigenerational developmental perspective. Boston: Pearson/A & B.
Barnett, R. C. (1997). Gender, employment, and psychological well-being: Historical and life course perspectives. In Lachman & James (Eds.), Multiple Paths of Midlife Development (pp. 325-343). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bengstron, V. L. (2001). Families, intergenerational relationships, and kinkeeping in midlife. In N. M. Putney (Author) & M. E. Lachman (Ed.), Handbook of midlife development (pp. 528-579). New York: Wiley.
Berger, K. S. (n.d.). The developing person through the life span. (6th ed.). New York: Worth.
Berk, L. (2007). Development through the life span (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Bohannan, P. (1971). Divorce and after. New York: Doubleday.
Bumpass, L. L., & Aquilino, W. S. (1995). A social map of midlife: Family and work over the life course. Prepared for the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development.
Cuber, J. F., & Harroff, P. B. (1965). Sex and the significant Americans: A study of sexual behavior among the affluent. Baltimore: Penguin Books.
Firth, K. (2004). The adaptive value of feeling in control in midlife. In M. E. Lachman (Author) & O. D. Brim, C. D. Ryff, & R. Kessler (Eds.), How healthy are we: A national study of health in midlife. (pp. 320-349). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Global Health Observatory: Life expectancy at birth. (Rep.). (2011). Retrieved February 21, 2011, from World Health Organization website: http://www.who.int/gho/mortality_bur.../en/index.html
Gottman, J. M., & Silver, N. (1999). The seven principles for making marriage work. New York: Crown.
Hochschild, A. R., & Machung, A. (1989). The second shift: Working parents and the revolution at home. New York, NY: Viking.
Knowles, M. S. (1998). The adult learner: A neglected species. Houston: Gulf Pub., Book Division.
Lachman, M. E. (2004). Development in Midlife. Annual Review of Psychology, 55(1), 305-331. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141521
Low Testosterone: MedlinePlus Interactive Health Tutorial from the Patient Education Institute. (n.d.). National Library of Medicine – National Institutes of Health. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/t.../htm/index.htm
Marks, N. F. (1998). Does it hurt to care? Caregiving, work-family conflict, and midlife well-being. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60(4), 951-966.
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (2003). Personality in adulthood: A five-factor theory perspective. New York: Guilford Press.
Menopause: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. (2007, January 11). National Library of Medicine – National Institutes of Health. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/e...cle/000894.htm
Neugarten, B. L. (1968). The awareness of middle aging. In B. L. Neugarten (Ed.), Middle age and aging (pp. 93-98). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
NIH Research Matters has moved. (2007, January 12). National Institutes of Health (NIH). Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.nih.gov/news/research_mat...2007skills.htm
Reid, J. D. (1999). Women’s health in midlife. In N. E. Avis (Author) & S. L. Willis (Ed.), Life in the Middle: Psychological and Social Development in Middle Age (pp. 105-147). San Diego, CA: Academic.
Research network on successful midlife development. (2007, February 7). Midlife Research – MIDMAC WebSite. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://midmac.med.harvard.edu/research.html
Rossi, A. S. (2004). The menopausal transition and aging process. In How healthy are we: A national study of health in midlife. (pp. 550-575). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Schaie, K. W. (2005). Developmental influences on adult intelligence the Seattle longitudinal study. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Seccombe, K., & Warner, R. L. (2004). Marriages and families: Relationships in social context. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Shapiro, S. M. (2006). Goal-free living: How to have the life you want now! Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Shure, J., & Cahan, V. (1998, September 10). Launch an Exercise Program Today, Say Aging Institute, Senator John Glenn. National Institute on Aging. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.nia.nih.gov/NewsAndEvents...0910Launch.htm
Stein, J. (1981). Single life: Unmarried adults in social context. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
The 2011 Statistical Abstract: Life Expectancy. (n.d.). Census Bureau Home Page. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.census.gov/compendia/stat...xpectancy.html
United States, National Institute on Aging. (2005, December 20). Sexuality in Later Life. Retrieved February 3, 2007, from http://www.niapublications.org/agepages/sexuality.asp
United States, U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Health. (2007, February 1). Erectile Dysfunction Affects 18 Million U. S. Men. Retrieved February 3, 2007, from http://www.nim.nih.gov/medlineplus/n...tory_44724.htm
Willis, S. L., & Schaie, K. W. (1999). Intellectual functioning in midlife. In S. L. Willis & J. D. Reid (Eds.), Life in the Middle: Psychological and Social Development in Middle Age (pp. 233-247). San Diego: Academic. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/09%3A_Middle_Adulthood/9.01%3A_Introduction_to_Middle_Adulthood.txt |
There are few biologically based physical changes in midlife other than changes in vision, more joint pain, and weight gain (Lachman, 2004). Vision is affected by age. As we age, the lens of the eye gets larger but the eye loses some of the flexibility required to adjust to visual stimuli. Middle aged adults often have trouble seeing up close as a result. Night vision is also affected as the pupil loses some of its ability to open and close to accommodate drastic changes in light. Autoimmune disease such as rheumatoid arthritis often starts in the 50s. Weight gain, sometimes referred to as the middle-aged spread, or the accumulation of fat in the abdomen is one of the common complaints of midlife adults. Men tend to gain fat on their upper abdomen and back while women tend to gain more fat on their waist and upper arms. Many adults are surprised at this weight gain because their diets have not changed. However, the metabolism slows during midlife by about one-third (Berger, 2005). Consequently, midlife adults have to increase their level of exercise, eat less, and watch their nutrition to maintain their earlier physique.
Hearing loss is experienced by about 14 percent of midlife adults (Gratton & Vasquez in Berk, 2007) as a result of being exposed to high levels of noise. Men may experience some hearing loss by 30 and women by 50. High frequency sounds are the first affected by such hearing loss. This loss accumulates after years of being exposed to intense noise levels. Men are more likely to work in noisy occupations. Hearing loss is also exacerbated by cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, and stroke. Most hearing loss could be prevented by guarding against being exposed to extremely noisy environments. (There is new concern over hearing loss in early adulthood with the widespread use of headphones for IPods and other similar devices.)
Most of the changes that occur in midlife can be easily compensated for (by buying glasses, exercising, and watching what one eats, for example.) And most midlife adults experience general good health. However, the percentage of adults who have a disability increases through midlife; while 7 percent of people in their early 40s have a disability, the rate jumps to 30 percent by the early 60s. This increase is highest among those of lower socioeconomic status (Bumpass and Aquilino, 1995).
What can we conclude from this information? Again, lifestyle has a strong impact on the health status of midlife adults. Smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol, poor diet, stress, physical inactivity, and chronic disease such as diabetes or arthritis reduce overall health. It becomes important for midlife adults to take preventative measures to enhance physical well-being. Those midlife adults who have a strong sense of mastery and control over their lives, who engage in challenging physical and mental activity, who engage in weight bearing exercise, monitor their nutrition, and make use of social resources are most likely to enjoy a plateau of good health through these years (Lachman, 2004).
The Climacteric
One biologically based change that occurs during midlife is the climacteric. During midlife, men may experience a reduction in their ability to reproduce. Women, however, lose their ability to reproduce once they reach menopause.
Menopause for women: Menopause refers to a period of transition in which a woman’s ovaries stop releasing eggs and the level of estrogen and progesterone production decreases. After menopause, a woman’s menstruation ceases (U. S. National Library of Medicine and National Institute of Health [NLM/NIH], 2007).
Changes typically occur between the mid 40s and mid 50s. The median age range for a women to have her last menstrual period is 50-52, but ages vary. A woman may first begin to notice that her periods are more or less frequent than before. These changes in menstruation may last from 1 to 3 years. After a year without menstruation, a woman is considered menopausal and no longer capable of reproduction. (Keep in mind that some women, however, may experience another period even after going for a year without one.) The loss of estrogen also affects vaginal lubrication which diminishes and becomes more watery. The vaginal wall also becomes thinner, and less elastic.
Menopause is not seen as universally distressing (Lachman, 2004). Changes in hormone levels are associated with hot flashes and sweats in some women, but women vary in the extent to which these are experienced. Depression, irritability, and weight gain are not menopausal (Avis, 1999; Rossi, 2004). Depression and mood swings are more common during menopause in women who have prior histories of these conditions rather than those who have not. And the incidence of depression and mood swings is not greater among menopausal women than non-menopausal women.
Cultural influences seem to also play a role in the way menopause is experienced. Numerous international students enrolled in my class have expressed their disbelief when we discuss menopause. For example, after listing the symptoms of menopause, a woman from Kenya or Nigeria might respond, “We do not have this in my country or if we do, it is not a big deal” to which some U. S. students reply, “I want to go there!” Indeed, there are cultural variations in the experience of menopausal symptoms. Hot flashes are experienced by 75 percent of women in Western cultures, but by less than 20 percent of women in Japan (Obermeyer in Berk, 2007).
Women in the United States respond differently to menopause depending upon the expectations they have for themselves and their lives. White, career-oriented women, African-American, and Mexican-American women overall tend to think of menopause as a liberating experience. Nevertheless, there has been a popular tendency to erroneously attribute frustrations and irritations expressed by women of menopausal age to menopause and thereby not take her concerns seriously. Fortunately, many practitioners in the United States today are normalizing rather than pathologizing menopause.
Concerns about the effects of hormone replacement has changed the frequency with which estrogen replacement and hormone replacement therapies have been prescribed for menopausal women. Estrogen replacement therapy was once commonly used to treat menopausal symptoms. But more recently, hormone replacement therapy has been associated with breast cancer, stroke, and the development of blood clots (NLM/NIH, 2007). Most women do not have symptoms severe enough to warrant estrogen or hormone replacement therapy. But if so, they can be treated with lower doses of estrogen and monitored with more frequent breast and pelvic exams. There are also some other ways to reduce symptoms. These include avoiding caffeine and alcohol, eating soy, remaining sexually active, practicing relaxation techniques, and using water-based lubricants during intercourse.
Andropause for men: Do males experience a climacteric? They do not lose their ability to reproduce as they age, although they do tend to produce lower levels of testosterone and fewer sperm. However, men are capable of reproduction throughout life. It is natural for sex drive to diminish slightly as men age, but a lack of sex drive may be a result of extremely low levels of testosterone. About 5 million men experience low levels of testosterone that results in symptoms such as: a loss of interest in sex, loss of body hair, difficulty achieving or maintaining erection, loss of muscle mass, and breast enlargement. Low testosterone levels may be due to glandular disease such as testicular cancer. Testosterone levels can be tested and if they are low, men can be treated with testosterone replacement therapy. This can increase sex drive, muscle mass, and beard growth. However, long term HRT for men can increase the risk of prostate cancer (The Patient Education Institute, 2005).
The Climacteric and Sexuality
Sexuality is an important part of people’s lives at any age. Midlife adults tend to have sex lives that are very similar to that of younger adulthood. And many women feel freer and less inhibited sexually as they age. However, a woman may notice less vaginal lubrication during arousal and men may experience changes in their erections from time to time. This is particularly true for men after age 65. As discussed in the previous paragraph, men who experience consistent problems are likely to have medical conditions (such as diabetes or heart disease) that impact sexual functioning (National Institute on Aging, 2005).
Couples continue to enjoy physical intimacy and may engage in more foreplay, oral sex, and other forms of sexual expression rather than focusing as much on sexual intercourse. Risk of pregnancy continues until a woman has been without menstruation for at least 12 months, however, and couples should continue to use contraception. People continue to be at risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections such as genital herpes, chlamydia, and genital warts. And 10 percent of new cases of AIDS in the United States are of people 50 and older. Practicing safe sex is important at any age. Hopefully, when partners understand how aging affects sexual expression, they will be less likely to misinterpret these changes as a lack of sexual interest or displeasure in the partner and more able to continue to have satisfying and safe sexual relationships.
Exercise, Nutrition, and Health
The impact of exercise: Exercise is a powerful way to combat the changes we associate with aging. Exercise builds muscle, increases metabolism, helps control blood sugar, increases bone density, and relieves stress. Unfortunately, fewer than half of midlife adults exercise and only about 20 percent exercise frequently and strenuously enough to achieve health benefits. Many stop exercising soon after they begin an exercise program-particularly those who are very overweight. The best exercise programs are those that are engaged in regularly-regardless of the activity. But a well-rounded program that is easy to follow includes walking and weight training. Having a safe, enjoyable place to walk can make the difference in whether or not someone walks regularly. Weight lifting and stretching exercises at home can also be part of an effective program. Exercise is particularly helpful in reducing stress in midlife. Walking, jogging, cycling, or swimming can release the tension caused by stressors. And learning relaxation techniques can have healthful benefits. Exercise can be thought of as preventative health care; promoting exercise for the 78 million “baby boomers” may be one of the best ways to reduce health care costs and improve quality of life (Shure & Cahan, 1998).
Nutritional concerns: Aging brings about a reduction in the number of calories a person requires. Many Americans respond to weight gain by dieting. However, eating less does not typically mean eating right and people often suffer vitamin and mineral deficiencies as a result. Very often, physicians will recommend vitamin supplements to their middle aged patients.
The new food pyramid: The ideal diet is one low in fat, sugar, high in fiber, low in sodium, and cholesterol. In 2005, the Food Pyramid, a set of nutritional guidelines established by the U. S. Government was updated to accommodate new information on nutrition and to provide people with guidelines based on age, sex, and activity levels.
The ideal diet is also one low in sodium (less than 2300 mg per day). Sodium causes fluid retention which may in turn exacerbate high blood pressure. The ideal diet is also low in cholesterol (less than 300 mg per day). The ideal diet is also one high in fiber. Fiber is thought to reduce the risk of certain cancers and heart disease. Finally, an ideal diet is low in sugar. Sugar is not only a problem for diabetics; it is also a problem for most people. Sugar satisfies the appetite but provides no protein, vitamins or minerals. It provides empty calories. High starch diets are also a problem because starch is converted to sugar in the body. A 1-2 ounce serving of red wine (or grape juice) can have beneficial effects as well. Red wine can increase “good cholesterol” or HDLs (high density lipoproteins) in the blood and provides antioxidants important to combating aging. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/09%3A_Middle_Adulthood/9.02%3A_Physical_Development.txt |
Plasticity of Intelligence
Prior research on cognition and aging has been focused on comparing young and old adults and assuming that midlife adults fall somewhere in between. But some abilities may decrease while others improve during midlife. The concept of plasticity means that intelligence can be shaped by experience. Intelligence is influenced by culture, social contexts, and personal choices as much as by heredity and age. In fact, there is new evidence that mental exercise or training can have lasting benefits (National Institutes of Health, 2007). We explore aspects of midlife intelligence below.
Formal Operational and Post-formal Intelligence
Remember formal operational thought? Formal operational thought involves being able to think abstractly; however, this ability does not apply to all situations or subjects. Formal operational thought is influenced by experience and education. Some adults lead patterned, orderly, lives in which they are not challenged to think abstractly about their world. Many adults do not receive any formal education and are not taught to think abstractly about situations they have never experienced. Nor are they exposed to conceptual tools used to formally analyze hypothetical situations. Those who do think abstractly, in fact, may be able to do so more easily in some subjects than others. For example, English majors may be able to think abstractly about literature, but be unable to use abstract reasoning in physics or chemistry. Abstract reasoning in a particular field requires a knowledge base that we might not have in all areas. So our ability to think abstractly depends to a large extent on our experiences.
Post-formal thought continues: As discussed previously, adults tend to think in more practical terms than do adolescents. Although they may be able to use abstract reasoning when they approach a situation and consider possibilities, they are more likely to think practically about what is likely to occur.
Increases and Decreases
Tacit knowledge (Hedlund, Antonakis, and Sternberg, 2001) increases with age. Tacit knowledge is pragmatic or practical and learned through experience rather than explicitly taught. It might be thought of as “know-how” or “professional instinct.” It is referred to as tacit because it cannot be codified or written down. It does not involve academic knowledge, rather it involves being able to use skills and to problem-solve in practical ways. Tacit knowledge can be understood in the workplace and by blue collar workers such as carpenters, chefs, and hair dressers. These occupations and cognitive skills are the subject of the book, The Mind at Work, by Mike Rose. Read an interview with Rose HERE.
Verbal memory, spatial skills, inductive reasoning (generalizing from particular examples), and vocabulary increase with age as well (Willis and Shaie, 1999). You may have heard that wisdom comes with age. However, wisdom may be more of a function of personality than cognition. Those who exhibit wisdom in midlife, may have made wiser choices at younger ages as well.
The mechanics of cognition such as working memory and speed of processing gradually decline with age but can be easily compensated for through the use of higher order cognitive skills such as forming strategies to enhance memory or summarizing and comparing ideas rather than relying on rote memorization (Lachman, 2004). Further, the declines mentioned above may diminish as new generations, equipped with higher levels of education, begin to enter midlife.
Learning in Older Adults
Midlife adults in the United States often find themselves in classrooms. Whether they enroll in school to sharpen particular skills, to retool and reenter the workplace, or to pursue interests that have previously been neglected, these students tend to approach learning differently than do younger college students (Knowles, Horton, & Swanson, 1998).
An 18 year-old college student may focus more on rote memorization in studying for tests. They may be able to memorize information more quickly than an older student, but not have as thorough a grasp on the meaning of that information. Older students may take a bit longer to learn material, but are less likely to forget it quickly. Adult learners tend to look for relevance and meaning when learning information. Older adults have the hardest time learning material that is meaningless or unfamiliar. They are more likely to ask themselves, “What does this mean?” or “Why is this important?” when being introduced to information or when trying to concepts or facts. Older adults are more task-oriented learners and want to organize their activity around problem-solving. They see the instructor as a resource person rather than the “expert” and appreciate having their life experience recognized and incorporated into the material being covered.
This type of learning is more easily accomplished if adequate time is allowed for mastering the material. Keeping distractions at a minimum and studying when rested and energetic enhances adult learning. Androgogy is a type of teaching that considers the needs of adults (versus pedagogy which was originally geared toward teaching children).
Gaining Expertise: The Novice and the Expert
When we work extensively in an area, we may gain expertise. Some areas of expertise develop after about 10 years of working in a field. Some gain expertise after a shorter period of time. Consider the study skills of a seasoned student versus a new student or a new nurse versus an experienced nurse. One of the major differences is that the new one operates as a novice while the seasoned student or nurse performs more like an expert. An expert has a different approach to learning and problem-solving than does a novice or someone new to a field. While a novice tends to rely on formal procedures or guidelines, the expert relies more on intuition and is more flexible in solving problems. a novice’s performance tends to be more conscious and methodical than an experts. An expert tends to perform actions in a more automatic fashion. An expert cook, for example, may be able to prepare a difficult recipe but not really describe how they did it. The novice cook might rigidly adhere to the recipe, hanging on every word and measurement. The expert also has better strategies for tackling problems than does a novice. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/09%3A_Middle_Adulthood/9.03%3A_Cognitive_Development.txt |
Midlife Crisis?
Remember Levinson’s theory from our last lesson? Levinson found that the men he interviewed sometimes had difficulty reconciling the “dream” they held about the future with the reality they now experience. “What do I really get from and give to my wife, children, friends, work, community-and self?” a man might ask (Levinson, 1978, p. 192). Tasks of the midlife transition include 1) ending early adulthood; 2) reassessing life in the present and making modifications if needed; and 3) reconciling “polarities” or contradictions in ones sense of self. Perhaps, early adulthood ends when a person no longer seeks adult status-but feels like a full adult in the eyes of others. This ‘permission’ may lead to different choices in life; choices that are made for self-fulfillment instead of social acceptance. While people in their early 20s may emphasize how old they are (to gain respect, to be viewed as experienced), by the time people reach their 40s, they tend to emphasize how young they are. (Few 40 year olds cut each other down for being so young: “You’re only 43? I’m 48!!”)
This new perspective on time brings about a new sense of urgency to life. The person becomes focused more on the present than the future or the past. The person grows impatient at being in the “waiting room of life” postponing doing the things they have always wanted to do. Now is the time. If it’s ever going to happen, it better happen now. A previous focus on the future gives way to an emphasis on the present. Neugarten (1968) notes that in midlife, people no longer think of their lives in terms of how long they have lived. Rather, life is thought of in terms of how many years are left. If an adult is not satisfied at midlife, there is a new sense of urgency to start to make changes now.
Changes may involve ending a relationship or modifying one’s expectations of a partner. These modifications are easier than changing the self (Levinson, 1978). Midlife is a period of transition in which one holds earlier images of the self while forming new ideas about the self of the future. A greater awareness of aging accompanies feelings of youth. And harm that may have been done previously in relationships haunts new dreams of contributing to the well-being of others. These polarities are the quieter struggles that continue after outward signs of “crisis” have gone away.
Levinson characterized midlife as a time of developmental crisis. However, research suggests that most people in the United States today do not experience a midlife crisis and that, in fact, many women find midlife a freeing, satisfying period. Results of a 10 year study conducted by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development, based on telephone interviews with over 3,000 midlife adults suggest that the years between 40 and 60 are ones marked by a sense of well-being. Only 23 percent of their participants reported experiencing a midlife crisis. The crisis tended to occur among the highly educated and was triggered by a major life event rather than out of a fear of aging (Research Network on Successful Midlife Development, accessed 2007). Maybe only the more affluent and educated have the luxury (or burden) of such self-examination. Nevertheless, sales of products designed to make one feel younger and “over the hill” birthday parties with black balloons and banners abound.
Goal-Free Living
One of the reasons the men in Levinson’s study became concerned about their life was because it had not followed the course they had envisioned. Shapiro (2006) offers an alternative to linear thinking about the future and career paths. Many plan their futures by using a map. They have a sense of where they are and where they want to be and form strategies to get from point A to point B. While this seems perfectly logical, Shapiro suggests that following a map closes one to opportunities for the future and provides a standard by which all actual events may fall short. Life, then, is evaluated by how closely actual life events have followed the map. If so, all is well. If not, a feeling of frustration and failure creeps in. Shapiro suggests using a compass rather than a map as one’s guide. A compass indicates a direction, but does not provide a destination. So, a person who lives “goal free” has direction and areas of interest that guide decision-making, but does not know the outcome. (Many of us do not know the outcome-even when we follow a map!) This approach opens a person up to possibilities that often occur by chance and frees one from being stressed or devastated if a preset destination is not reached by a certain time. And more importantly, goal-free (or compass-guided living) focuses a person’s attention on the process of the journey and helps them appreciate all of their experiences along the way. What do you think? How many of your plans were mapped out previously? Could you be happy knowing that you do not know where you will be 5 years from now?
A clear sense of self, identity, and control can be important for meeting the challenges of midlife (Lachman and Firth, 2004). Consider this story of overcoming gender identity at midlife.
FINDING IDENTITY AT MIDLIFE: THE STORY OF ERIKA
The late 40s brought about dramatic change in Erika’s life. Erika is a transsexual who began the process of transitioning from male to female at about age 48. Since about age 8, Erika (then Richard) felt that he was more feminine than masculine. An impromptu game of “dress up” with a girl who lived in the neighborhood left Richard feeling a sense of connection and ‘rightness’ he had not before experienced. Through the years, dressing up and wearing make-up provided comfort and relief as well as the anxiety of possibly being discovered. Richard married and pursued a career in the military and later as a geologist, two very masculine careers, but all the while felt out of place in a masculine world.
Through the years, discomfort gave rise to depression and thoughts of suicide. “I felt like some sick, weird person.” Not knowing what was wrong and not having anyone to talk to was very difficult. Erika finally found out what was wrong after searching the internet. First, she looked up “transvestite”. “Is that what I am?” she wondered. But these descriptions did not apply. Finally, she learned about gender identity disorder, marked by a feeling of discomfort and disconnection between one’s sense of self and biological gender. Eventually, Richard got the courage to tell his wife. Her response was, “you’re killing my husband”, to which he replied, “He would have died anyway.” The couple separated after 24 years of marriage. After several months, however, the couple got back together. “We were just too good of friends to break up.” But her wife did not want to see it, initially. “I would get dressed in the garage or dress like a man from the waist up and then stop behind a grocery store and finish changing before I got to my destination.”
Erika found a psychologist in the phone book and began treatment under the Harry Benjamin standard of care. This care requires that an individual be identified as transsexual by two psychologists, and lives completely as a member of the other sex for one year before beginning surgical and hormonal treatments. Erika’s surgery cost about \$30,000. Hormone therapy and electrolysis cost far more.
Now in their 30th year together, Erika and wife they live under the same roof, but no longer share a bedroom. Erika now has full status through the state and government as a female. And her wife, is a warm, accepting, roommate. “The day that she yelled from her bedroom, ‘do you have any pantyhose’ was an important one.” And seeing her lipstick on the rim of a wine glass created a feeling of congruence for Erika. Erika could now be Erika.
Erikson’s Theory
According to Erikson, midlife adults face the crisis of generativity vs. stagnation. This involves looking at one’s life while asking the question, “Am I doing anything worthwhile? Is anyone going to know that I was here? What am I contributing to others?” If not, a feeling of being stuck or stagnated may result. This discomfort can motivate a person to redirect energies into more meaningful activities. It is important to make revisions here so that in later life, one may feel a sense of pride and accomplishment and feel content with the choices that have been made.
Productivity at Home
Family Relationships
Younger and older adults tend to experience more spouse-related stress than do midlife adults. Midlife adults often have overload stressors such as having too many demands placed on them by children or due to financial concerns. Parents adjust to launching their children into lives of their own during this time. Some parents who feel uncomfortable about their children leaving home may actually precipitate a crisis to keep it from happening or push their child out too soon (Anderson and Sabatelli, 2007). But even welcomed and anticipated departure can still require adjustment on the part of the parents as they get used to their empty nest.
Adult children typically maintain frequent contact with their parents if for no other reason, for money and advice. Attitudes toward one’s parents may become more accepting and forgiving as parents are seen in a more objective way-as people with good points and bad. And, as adults, children can continue to be subjected to criticism, ridicule, and abuse at the hand of parents. How long are we “adult children”? For as long as our parents are living, we continue in the role of son or daughter. (I had a neighbor in her nineties who would tell me her “boys” were coming to see her this weekend. Her boys were in their 70s-but they were still her boys!) But after ones parents are gone, the adult is no longer a child; as one 40 year old man explained after the death of his father, “I’ll never be a kid again.” And adult children, known as boomerang kids, may return home to live temporarily after divorces or if they lose employment.
Being a midlife child sometimes involves kinkeeping; organizing events and communication in order to maintain family ties. Kinkeepers are often midlife daughters (they are the person who tells you what food to bring to a gathering or makes arrangement for a family reunion), but kinkeepers can be midlife sons as well.
Caregiving of a disabled child, spouse, or other family member is part of the lives of some midlife adults. Overall, one major source of stress is that of trying to balance caregiving with meeting the demands of work away from home. Caregiving can have both positive and negative consequences that depend in part on the gender of the caregiver and the person receiving the care. Men and women express greater distress when caring for a spouse than when caring for other family members. Men who care are providing care for a spouse are more likely to experience greater hostility but also more personal growth than non-caregiving males. Men who are caring for disabled children express having more positive relationships with others. Women experience more positive relationships with others and greater purpose in life when caring for parents either in or outside of their home. But women who are caring for disabled children may experience poorer health and greater distress as a result (Marks, 1998). | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/09%3A_Middle_Adulthood/9.04%3A_Psychosocial_Development.txt |
Intimate Relationships
Single or Spouse-free? The number of adults who remain single has increased dramatically in the last 30 years. We have more people who never marry, more widows and more divorcees driving up the number of singles. Singles represent about 25 percent of American households. Singlehood has become a more acceptable lifestyle than it was in the past and many singles are very happy with their status. Whether or not a single person is happy depends on the circumstances of their remaining single.
Stein’s Typology of Singles
Many of the research findings about singles reveal that they are not all alike. Happiness with one’s status depends on whether the person is single by choice and whether the situation is permanent. Let’s look at Stein’s (1981) four categories of singles for a better understanding of this.
Voluntary temporary singles: These are younger people who have never been married and divorced people who are postponing marriage and remarriage. They may be more involved in careers or getting an education or just wanting to have fun without making a commitment to any one person. They are not quite ready for that kind of relationship. These people tend to report being very happy with their single status.
Voluntary permanent singles: These individuals do not want to marry and aren’t intending to marry. This might include cohabiting couples who don’t want to marry, priests, nuns, or others who are not considering marriage. Again, this group is typically single by choice and understandably more contented with this decision.
Involuntary temporary: These are people who are actively seeking mates. They hope to marry or remarry and may be involved in going on blind dates, seeking a partner on the internet or placing “getting personal” aids in search of a mate. They tend to be more anxious about being single.
Involuntary permanent: These are older divorced, widowed, or never-married people who wanted to marry but have not found a mate and are coming to accept singlehood as a probable permanent situation. Some are bitter about not having married while others are more accepting of how their life has developed.
Marriage: It has been said that marriage can be the greatest source of happiness or pain in one’s life, depending on the relationship. Those who are in marriages can experience deeper happiness and pain than those who are unattached. All marriages are not alike and the same marriage between two people may change through the years. Below we will look at how satisfaction with marriage is affected by the life cycle and two ways to characterizing marriages.
Marital satisfaction & the life cycle: Marital satisfaction has peaks and valleys during the course of the life cycle. Rates of happiness are highest in the years prior to the birth of the first child. It hits a low point with the coming of children. Relationships become more traditional and there are more financial hardships and stress in living. Then it begins to improve when children leave home. Children bring new expectations to the marital relationship. Two people, who are comfortable with their roles as partners, may find the added parental duties and expectations more challenging to meet. Some couples elect not to have children in order to have more time and resources for the marriage. These child-free couples are happy keeping their time and attention on their partners, careers, and interests.
Types of Marriages
Intrinsic and Utilitarian Marriages: One way marriages vary is with regard to the reason the partners are married. Some marriages have intrinsic value: the partners are together because they enjoy, love and value one another. Marriage is not thought of as a means to another end-is an end in itself. These partners look for someone they are drawn to and with whom they feel a close and intense relationship. These partners find the relationship personally rewarding. Other marriages called utilitarian marriages are unions entered primarily for practical reasons. The partners see one another as a means to an end. The marriage brings financial security, children, social approval, housekeeping, political favor, a good car, a great house, and so on. These partners do not focus on intimacy. These marriages may be chosen more out of default. (“She was there when it was time to get married so here we are.”) Marriages entered for practical reasons are more common throughout history and throughout the world.
Intrinsic marriages are a relatively recent phenomenon arising out of the 20th century focus on romantic love as a basis for marriage and increased independence of the partners. Marriage today is viewed as less necessary for economic survival. In general, utilitarian marriages tend to be more stable than intrinsic ones. In an intrinsic marriage, if the love or passion cools, there is nothing else to keep the partners together. In utilitarian marriages, there may be numerous ties to one another (children, property, and status). However, intrinsic marriages may be more romantically satisfying. Are most marriages intrinsic or utilitarian?
In reality, marriages fall somewhere in between these two extremes. Now let’s look at another typology of marriage. As you read these types, think of whether these are more utilitarian or more intrinsic.
Cuber and Harroff
This classic typology of marriages is based on interviews with 437 highly educated, upper-middle class people, and ages 35 to 55 (Cuber & Haroff, 1965). All were financially successful and emotionally adjusted. From their interviews, the researchers found five major types of marriages. Some of these are more intrinsic and some more utilitarian. (One of the merits of this model is that it calls attention to the variation we find in marriages.)
1. Conflict-habituated marriages: In these marriages, there is considerable tension and unresolved conflict. Spouses habitually quarrel, nag, and bring up the past. As a rule, both spouses acknowledge their incompatibility and recognize the atmosphere of tension as normal. The subject of the argument hardly seems important, and partners do not resolve or expect to resolve their differences. ‘Of course we don’t settle any of the issues. It’s sort of a matter of principle not to. Because somebody would have to give in and lose face for the next encounter’, explained a member of a 25 year long conflict-habituated marriage. The conflict between them is “controlled” meaning it doesn’t escalate. And it may be main way the partners interact with one another.
2. Devitalized relationships: These marriages are characterized as being empty, apathetic relationships which once had something more. Usually couples have been married several years, and over the course of time, the relationship has lost it’s zest, intimacy, and meaning. Once deeply in love, they recall spending a great deal of time enjoying sex, and having a close emotional relationship in the past. But now they spend little time together, enjoy sex together less, and no longer share many interests and activities. Most of their time is “duty time” together spent entertaining, planning and sharing activities with their children, and participating in community responsibilities and functions. Once their marriage was intrinsic, but now has become utilitarian.
Cuber and Haroff found these to be common among their respondents. Couples accepted this and tried to be “mature” about it. Some attributed it to being in middle-age; as a normal part of growing older. Others were resentful, bitter about it and others were ambivalent. Many felt it was appropriate for spouses who have been married for several years and these marriages were stable.
3. Passive-congenial: These utilitarian marriages emphasize qualities in the partners rather than emotional closeness. These upper-middle class couples tended to emphasize civic and professional responsibilities and the importance of property, children, and reputation. Among working class people the focus might be on the need for security or hopes for children. Unlike devitalized marriages, passive-congenial partners never expected the marriage to be emotionally intense. Instead, they stress the “sensibility” of their decision to marry. There is little conflict, but that does not mean there are no unspoken frustrations. There is little intimacy but the partner’s fail each other’s need for casual companionship. Passive-congenial marriages are less likely to end in divorce than unions in which partners have high expectations for emotional intensity. But if the marriage fails to fill practical needs, such as economic support or professional advancement, the partners may decide to divorce. Or, if one partner discovers they want more intimacy, they may leave.
4. Vital: These intrinsic marriages are created out of a desire for being together for the sake of enjoying one another. Vital partners retain their separate identities, but really enjoy sharing activities. They do have conflict, but it is likely to center on real issues rather than on “who said what first” or old grievances. They try to settle disagreements quickly so they can resume the relationship that means so much to them. There are few long-term areas of tension. Sex is important and pleasurable. Cuber and Haroff found these marriages to be in the minority.
5. Total marriage: These are also intrinsic. They are like vital marriages but the marriage encompasses even more areas of the partner’s lives. Spouses may share work life, friends and leisure activities, as well as home life. They may organize their lives to make it possible to be alone together for long periods. These relationships are emotionally intense. Total marriages were also rare. They may also be at risk for rapid disintegration if the marital quality changes. These partners tend to want such intensity and be dissatisfied with anything less. These marriages also foster a mutual dependency that makes it hard for the remaining partner to adjust in case of death or divorce.
Marital Communication
Advice on how to improve one’s marriage is centuries old. One of today’s experts on marital communication is John Gottman. Gottman (1999) differs from many marriage counselors in his belief that having a good marriage does not depend on compatibility. Rather, the way that partners communicate to one another is crucial. At the University of Washington in Seattle, Gottman has measures the physiological responses of thousands of couples as they discuss issues of disagreement. Fidgeting in one’s chair, leaning closer to or further away from the partner while speaking, increases in respiration and heart rate are all recorded and analyzed along with videotaped recordings of the partners’ exchanges. Gottman believes he can accurately predict whether or not a couple will stay together by analyzing their communication. In marriages destined to fail, partners engage in the “marriage killers”: contempt, criticism, defensiveness, and stonewalling. Each of these undermines the politeness and respect that healthy marriages require. And stonewalling, or shutting someone out, is the strongest sign that a relationship is destined to fail. Listen to Act One: What Really Happens in Marriage to hear Gottman talk about his work.
Divorce
We have examined divorce from the standpoint of its impact on children. And, in our last lesson, we looked at the “process of disaffection.” One way to understand divorce is to look at the types of divorces people experience when a relationship ends. Bohannon (1971) describes six “stations of divorce”. The first is the emotional divorce. This involves a lot of mini-divorces in which partners make alienating remarks to one another. Partners become disengaged from one another and emotionally withdrawn. Some couples divorce emotionally, but never legally.
The economic divorce involves the division of property and debt, determining whether alimony will be paid, and determining if a spouse who provided support while their partner was in school or other lengthy training that increased their earning potential will be entitled to future earnings. Sometimes custody battles are motivated by economic concerns.
The legal divorce involves court proceedings and negotiations that legally dissolve the partners’ marital ties to one another. This is when society views a couple as divorced and may be a process that is somewhat anticlimactic. The actual time spent in the courtroom may be brief and the final culmination of much of what has occurred in the other stations of divorce.
The coparental divorce is experienced by those couples who have children together. Determining custody and visitation are part of this station of divorce. This can be the most difficult station of divorce.
The community divorce is perhaps given the least attention when thinking of divorce. This involves severing ties with neighbors, coworkers, friends, and relatives following divorce. When family and friends choose sides in a break-up, relationships are lost. Divorced adults may find that they are no longer included in events and ties are no longer maintained. A person begins to get used to their single status. This may initially involve a sense of anxiety about the future.
The psychic divorce takes the longest to complete. This involves grieving, becoming more objective about one’s role in the break up, and feeling whole again as a single person. This transition may take 5 years or more. Many people never complete this because they remarry before getting to this point.
Remarriage
Rates of remarriage: Half of all marriages are remarriages for at least one partner. But remarriage rates have declined slightly in the past few years. Cohabitation is the main way couples prepare for remarriage, but even when living together, many important issues are still not discussed. Issues concerning money, ex-spouses, children, visitation, future plans, previous difficulties in marriage, etc. can all pose problems later in the relationship. And few couples engage in premarital counseling or other structured efforts to cover this ground before entering marriage again.
Happiness in remarriage: Reviews are mixed as to how happy remarriages are. Some say that they have found the right partner and have learned from mistakes. But the divorce rates for remarriages are higher than for first marriages. This is especially true in stepfamilies for reasons which we have already discussed. People who have remarried tend to divorce more quickly than do first marriages. This may be due to the fact that they have fewer constraints on staying married (are more financially or psychologically independent).
Factors effecting remarriage: The chances of remarrying depend on a number of things. First, it depends on the availability of partners. As time goes by, there are more available women than men in the marriage pool. Consequently, men are more likely than women to remarry. This lack of available partners is experienced by all women, but especially by African-American women where the ratio of women to men is quite high. Women are more likely to have children living with them, and this diminishes the chance of remarriage as well. And marriage is more attractive for males than females (Seccombe & Warner, 2004). Men tend to remarry sooner (3 years after divorce on average vs. 5 years on average for women).
Many women do not remarry because they do not want to remarry. Traditionally, marriage has provided more benefits to men than to women. Women typically have to make more adjustments in work (accommodating work life to meet family demands or the approval of the husband) and at home (taking more responsibility for household duties). Further, men’s physical desirability is not as influenced by aging as is women’s. The cultural emphasis on youth and physical beauty for women does not apply for men.
Education increases men’s likelihood of remarrying but may reduce the likelihood for women. Part of this is due to the expectation (almost an unspoken rule) referred to as the “marriage gradient”. This rule suggests among couples, the man is supposed to have more education than the woman. Today, there are more women with higher levels of education than before and women with higher levels are less likely to find partners matching this expectation. Being happily single requires being economically self-sufficient and being psychologically independent. Women in this situation may find remarriage much less attractive.
How Do Children Influence Recoupling/Repartnering?
Children lower the probability of remarriage, especially for women. One of the reasons for this is because women with children have less time and fewer resources for dating. Dating is difficult for a woman who has to find a babysitter, pay for a babysitter, and ‘come home on time’ if she is concerned about what her children think about her relationships. There is more guilt experienced about going out and finding the time and location for sexual intimacy can be problematic. Men may shy away from the responsibility of children or may find it difficult to get along with a girlfriend’s children. And parents may find it difficult to date someone who wants to change the relationship they have with their children. Sometimes, she may feel pulled in two directions as the children and the man in her life all seek attention and engage in power struggles to get it. Some women decide that it is easier to be single than to experience such divisions. (This can also be true for men whose dates try to establish their importance over the importance of the children.) Children usually remain central to a single parent’s life.
Courtship in Remarriage
Courtships are shorter in remarriage than in first marriages. When couples are “dating”, there is less going out and more time spent in activities at home or with the children. So the couple gets less time together to focus on their relationship. Anxiety or memories of past relationships can get in the way. As one Talmudic scholar suggests “when a divorced man marries a divorced woman, four go to bed.” (Secombe & Warner, 2004).
Remarried couples tend to have more realistic expectations for marriage, but also tend to be less willing to stay in unhappy situations. And re-divorce is more likely, especially when children are involved. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/09%3A_Middle_Adulthood/9.05%3A_Relationships.txt |
The workplace today is one in which many people from various walks of life come together. Work schedules are more flexible and varied, and more work independently from home or anywhere there is an internet connection. The midlife worker must be flexible, stay current with technology, and be capable of working within a global community. And the midlife mind seeks meaningful work.
Personality in Midlife
Does the personality change in midlife? Think about your parents or other adults you’ve known for some time. Did their personalities change when they reached midlife? Or were they pretty much the same? Some theorists maintain that personality becomes more stable as we reach middle adulthood. Other suggest that with age comes the addition of new personality traits-one’s we may not have felt comfortable showing when we were younger.
Midlife is viewed as a time of increased stability especially if compared with early adulthood or adolescence. A person’s tendency toward extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and openness, the Big Five personality traits, is more consistent (McCrae & Costa, 2003). Midlife adults become more agreeable, but decline in openness and neuroticism.
However, midlife is also viewed as a time of change. Carl Jung believed that our personality actually matures as we get older. A healthy personality is one that is balanced. People suffer tension and anxiety when they fail to express all of their qualities. Jung believed that each of us possess a “shadow side”. For example, those who are typically introverted also have an extroverted side that rarely finds expression unless we are relaxed and uninhibited. Each of us has both a masculine and feminine side but in younger years, we feel societal pressure to give expression only to one. As we get older, we may become freer to express all of our traits as the situation arises. We find gender convergence in older adults. Men become more interested in intimacy and family ties. Women may become more assertive. This gender convergence is also affected by changes in society’s expectations for males and females. With each new generation we find that the roles of men and women are less stereotypic and this allows for change as well.
Again, a sense of mastery and control over one’s life can help midlife adults meet the challenges of this time of life (Lachman and Firth, 2004).
Conclusion
Midlife is a period of transition. It is also a time of productivity and expertise; a time of putting things together. Midlife is perhaps the least studied period of life. The story of midlife will continue to unfold as more attention is given to it as a part of the lifespan.
9.07: Middle Adulthood
Lecture Transcript
Now we’re going to take a look at middle adulthood. This is a rather long period of the lifespan between the ages of 40 to perhaps 65.
Midlife adults are engaging in many developmental tasks. For example, they may experience the loss of their parents and subsequent grief. They may be launching their children into lives of their own and adjusting to life after their children have left. Interestingly enough, many children may return temporarily to go to school or after having broken up in a marriage so midlife adults may have to deal with adult children who have returned. They may be becoming grandparents and preparing for late adulthood and caring for family members in need.
Most midlife adults experience good health. Their risk of chronic disability is relatively low. However, changes in vision, becoming far-sighted or near-sighted or both, are very common. This can be easily corrected for with glasses or contacts. Some midlife adults may experience hearing loss, especially those who live noisy lives. Joint pain and weight gain are also more common in midlife.
It is important to remember the use it or lose it principle. Our lifestyle has an enormous impact on our health and well-being. Some risks to health include poor diet, stress, smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol excessively, physical inactivity and perhaps chronic disease. Some preventative measures include engaging in challenging physical and mental activity, incorporating weight bearing exercise into any physical routine, practicing good nutrition, and having access to social resources to keep life vibrant.
During midlife, women go through a climacteric or menopause. This is triggered by a loss of estrogen. It usually starts by the mid-forties and most complete this by the mid-fifties. All complete this by age 58. One of the first noticeable changes a woman may experience is a change in her menstrual cycle; either her periods are heavier and more frequent or perhaps lighter and less frequent. Other changes a woman may or may not experience are hot flashes, night sweats, dryness in the skin and hair, and less vaginal lubrication during sexual arousal. After menopause has been completed, which clinically is defined as going for a year without a menstrual cycle, a woman is no longer capable of reproduction. Be sure to read about the cultural variation in attitudes toward and experiences of women going through menopause.
Do through men go through a comparable event? Is there such a thing as andropause? Well, they do not lose their reproductive ability although their sperm count can be lower with age and testosterone levels may diminish due to stress and a sexual inactivity.
How does the climacteric effect sexual expression? It does effect reproduction in females, but physical intimacy is still very important and it’s important for midlife adults to remember to practice safe sex.
Let’s look further at lifestyle changes. Exercise may be one of the best things that a midlife adult can do with regularity. Exercise keeps muscles strong, helps to reduce stress levels, increases energy, and weight training can increase bone density.
When you have a chance, look at the food pyramid published by the U. S. Government. The food pyramid is a wonderful tool to incorporate exercise, focus on nutrition, and tailor-make a physical fitness program to suit one’s own needs.
The ideal diet is low in cholesterol, sodium, high in fiber, low in sugar and starch and perhaps includes alcohol in moderation.
Now let’s turn our attention to cognitive development. Here we are going to revisit formal and postformal thought during midlife and focus on some cognitive abilities that are enhanced in midlife.
Remember formal operational thought? Formal operational thought is the ability to think abstractly about an area. Although many adults have formal operational thought chances are they don’t have this ability when thinking about all topics. This ability is going to be found in areas in which they have a lot of experience and education. For example, I can think very abstractly about social science, but when I take chemistry, I just want to know how to get through the problems.
There are increases and decreases in cognitive abilities in midlife. Some of the abilities that increase include tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is the kind of understanding that really can’t be taught. It’s acquired through experience. Verbal memory increases with age. Spatial skills and inductive reasoning also seem to be enhanced with age. What about wisdom? As you grow older, will you become wiser? Not necessarily. It may depend on your life circumstances and how much wisdom you had at a younger age. It can also be tied to occupation and whether or not it requires those kinds of skills in making decisions; working memory and the speed of processing decrease with age.
Older adult students seem to approach learning in a way very different from younger students. In fact there is a particular type of teaching that addresses adult students called andragogy. What’s the difference? As you can imagine, through time and experience, the adult is more interested in the relevance of material being learned rather than relying on rote memorization. They’re probably going to focus on being accurate rather than quick when working on a task. Older students are going to work best when distractions are at a minimum. And it may be harder for them to learn when they’re very tired. Focusing on accuracy and relevance requires a slower pace for learning.
Midlife is sometimes considered to be a time of gaining expertise. It’s been said that you need about 10 years of exposure to something to become an expert at it. The expert and the novice work differently. Keep in mind that expertise comes from experience. The expert seems to automatically know how to handle a situation, almost as if they know because of intuition. Keep in mind that they were once novices as well. The expert is less conscious of their activities. I’m thinking of two people I know; an experienced musician and a novice guitarist. The novice keeps asking, “How’d you do that?” when he plays a certain passage on the guitar and the expert replies, “Well, you just do it.” He’s less conscious now of the components and mechanisms for playing a certain passage. And experts are much better at handling unusual situations. They seem to have much more knowledge than that found in a procedural manual.
Now let’s look at psychosocial development in midlife. This involves a couple of theories of midlife, the ways that people have relationships, and the world of work.
Remember Daniel Levinson? Levinson provided one of the first investigations of transitions that adults may experience. You may have heard of a midlife crisis. It’s a term that has been popularized for some years in the U. S. It refers to the idea of having a great transition or dramatic change or maybe trying to become younger than one is at around 40 or 50. Does everyone have a midlife crisis? Well, a midlife crisis involves changing things in order to get back on course with the way one wanted life to be. If a person is not off track, there’s no reason for revision. It seems that people who have dramatic emotional crises, have emotional crises at other times in life as well. What does it look like? It may look like a lot of impatience and frustration; perhaps a real focus on the self. And it can last more than a few months; perhaps several years in making this change. The kinds of changes may be more extreme than they make at age thirty, particularly because now they’re thinking about their lives in terms of how many years they have left and this brings a new sense of urgency for bringing on change.
Erikson characterized adulthood as a time of generativity versus stagnation. Generativity means feeling productive and more than this it involves trying to give back to the next generation. If a midlife adult looks at their life and doesn’t think they’ve done anything worthwhile, they may feel stagnated or stuck. This productivity can occur in work life, in a hobby or avocation, and in family life.
Let’s focus our attention on family relationships. As long as your parents are living, you’re an adult child. I’m thinking of a neighbor I had who was in her 90s. And from time to time she’d tell me that her boys were visiting her. In fact, on the weekend her boys, ages 70 and 75, would show up wearing a bill cap and a dog on a leash and she’d proceed to order them around quite a lot. Most adult children seem to have more tolerance of their parent’s imperfections through time. Midlife families can be very busy to the point of experiencing overload stress: there’s too much to do and too little time. There are a number of launching concerns. Some parents who have a difficult time with their children leaving, maybe they need their children for emotional support, may even precipitate a crisis to keep them from leaving. Kinkeeping is a kind of relationship midlife adults, often midlife daughters in particular may find they are responsible for. Kinkeeping involves trying to organize the family to maintain family contact and ties. Some midlife adults provide caregiving either for needy children, spouses, or dependent parents. Read about whether this experience is rewarding or difficult. There is a lot of variation in how this is experienced.
If you looked in all the households in the United States, you’d find about 25 percent containing a single adult. This percentage has been fairly consistent varying by less than 5 percent. But today we see that more young people are staying single longer and those who divorce are more likely to remain unmarried. Widows also make up a large and growing number of singles. Are singles happier than marrieds? It depends. Are they single by choice or are they unable to find a mate?
Stein offers a typology of singles based on whether the person is single by choice and whether the status is temporary or permanent. The voluntary temporary single is typically satisfied with that status. The person wants to be single, maybe to feel free of obligations or to be able to focus on work or school, and views the status as temporary. The plan is to marry someday, just not yet. The voluntary permanent single has decided to remain single and is happy with that decision. The person might be dedicated to work or may have an occupation that does not allow marriage (clergy). Or the person just might not believe in marriage as an institution. Voluntary temporary singles are actively looking for a mate and may not be happy with being single. The involuntary single may have wanted to marry, but never found a partner. This person may be bitter about it or just resigned to the fact. Many women in late adulthood may be in this category as there are far more women than men in this age bracket.
Now let’s look at types of marriages. Some marriages are considered intrinsic meaning the focus of the relationship is that of being together. These partners are drawn to one another out of desire for and attraction toward one another. Others are utilitarian. The marriage serves a purpose other than attraction. Marriage brings financial security, children, respect, status, or labor. Most marriages throughout history and throughout the world have been utilitarian rather than purely intrinsic. But being “in love” has become an important reason for marriage in recent decades.
Cuber and Harroff studied members of long-term marriages and found that marriages vary. Their typology of marriage includes the conflict-habituated marriage, in which partners constantly nagged and nitpicked one another. Their conflict had become a habit and neither partner tried to resolve issues. “Of course we don’t solve a problem. It’s a matter of principle not to . . . then someone would lose face for the next encounter. . .’ explained one woman in a 25 year long conflict habituated relationship. Devitalized partners could remember when their marriage was happy and they felt in love. But now their time together is mundane. Passive-congenial partners married for status and placed a lot of emphasis on property, children, and status. Their frustrations with one another were not openly expressed, but were shown in more subtle, passive ways, such as doing something to irritate the partner. Partners of vital marriages spend a lot of time together, are attracted to one another, and find ways to organize their lives in order to spend time together. Total marriages are those in which partners also share career interests and are perhaps colleagues.
Gottman studies marital communication. Gottman describes several marriage killers or types of communication that signal that a relationship is vulnerable to divorce. These include criticism that is harmful and insulting. Another is contempt. Contempt takes it one step further and involves berating a partner’s character through blaming and name-calling. Defensiveness occurs when partners are no longer listening to one another. Instead they are making excuses for their actions or meeting complaints with complaints known as “cross-complaining.” Stonewalling involves shutting down and no longer speaking or attending to a partner. Males are more likely to do this and Gottman attributes this to a male’s stronger physiological response when feeling attacked. Blood pressure and respiration increase under those conditions and the male shuts down. Read more about this in your lesson.
Stations of divorce are areas in life impacted by divorce. When couples divorce, they break up in many ways. The emotional divorce is a psychological breakup in which partners insult, nag, and nitpick one another. They are no longer psychologically close. Some couples have divorced emotionally even though they are still married. The legal divorce is the court proceeding that changes marital status. The economic divorce involves determining how property, debt, and income will be distributed. The coparental divorce continues as long as children are dependent. Parents establish visitation and reevaluate and adjust to their new roles with children following divorce. The community divorce involves changes in relationships with friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family members following divorce. The psychic divorce is a period of adjustment that may take up to 10 years. The divorced person grieves and readjusts to life as a single person. As this model shows, divorce is more than a legal procedure.
About half of all marriage in the U. S. is a remarriage for at least one of the partners. Partners considering remarriage tend to have less traditional courtships of dating. They become sexual partners sooner and include children into the relationship more quickly. If they break up, it happens sooner than in first marriages. And they are more vulnerable to breaking up if children are involved in the relationship. We’ve already discussed some of the difficulties facing stepfamilies.
There is a lot of variation in the work life of people between 40 and 65. Some are enjoying the peak of their careers, earning more money than ever before and using their expertise. Others find that they are back in school and retooling to reenter the changing and challenging job market. Midlife is a time of seeking encore careers for many Baby Boomers. These are second careers that combine purpose, meaning, and income. Listen to the audio story about encore careers. Many colleges have programs for their “encore” students to help them with this transition. Flexibility is very important to compete in the world of work. Successful workers can adapt to new demands and skills required for employment.
What happens to personality in midlife? Studies of the Big Five personality traits indicate that midlife adults become more agreeable and less open and neurotic. This means that midlife adults become more flexible and less rigid in decision-making. They may be less interested in novel or new situations and may not worry as much as about smaller issues. Jung suggests that personality becomes more balanced in midlife. For example, a person is freer to express both their masculine and feminine side or to be both assertive in situations and passive depending on the situation. Again, flexibility is key.
9.08: Middle Adulthood
Lifespan Psychology Lesson 9 Middle Adulthood from Lumen Learning | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/09%3A_Middle_Adulthood/9.06%3A_Work_and_Personality.txt |
About 13 percent of the U. S. population or 38.9 million Americans are 65 and older (U. S. Census Bureau, 2011). This number is expected to grow to 88.5 million by the year 2050 at which time people over 65 will make up 20 percent of the population. This group varies considerably and is divided into categories of 65 plus, 85 plus, and centenarians for comparison by the census. Developmentalists, however, divide this population in to categories based on health and social well-being. Optimal aging refers to those who enjoy better health and social well-being than average. Normal aging refers to those who seem to have the same health and social concerns as most of those in the population. However, there is still much being done to understand exactly what normal aging means. Impaired aging refers to those who experience poor health and dependence to a greater extent than would be considered normal.
• 10.1: Introduction to Late Adulthood
We are considered in late adulthood from the time we reach our mid-sixties until death. Optimal aging refers to those who enjoy better health and social well-being than average. Normal aging refers to those who seem to have the same health and social concerns as most of those in the population. Aging successfully involves making adjustments as needed in order to continue living as independently and actively as possible.
• 10.2: Physical Development
Increased life expectancy brings concern over the health and independence of those living longer. Greater attention is now being given to the number of years a person can expect to live without disability which is referred to as active life expectancy. The shorter life expectancy for men in general, is attributed to greater stress, poorer attention to health, more involvement in dangerous occupations, and higher rates of death due to accidents, homicide, and suicide.
• 10.3: Cognitive Development
Aging may create small decrements in the sensitivity of the sensory register. And, to the extent that a person has a more difficult time hearing or seeing, that information will not be stored in memory. As we age, the working memory loses some of its capacity. This makes it more difficult to concentrate on more than one thing at a time or to keep remember details of an event.
• 10.4: Psychosocial Development
Erikson believed that late adulthood is a time for making sense out of one’s life, finding meaning to one’s existence, and adjusting to inevitable death. He called this stage integrity vs. despair. Focusing on what a person can do and pursuing those interests and activities is one way to optimize and maintain self-identity. Some activities include work, education, volunteering, family life, and intimate relationships.
• 10.5: Relationships
Grandparenting typically begins in midlife rather than late adulthood, but because people are living longer, they can anticipate being grandparents for longer periods of time. An increasing number of grandparents are raising grandchildren today. Issues such as custody, visitation, and continued contact between grandparents and grandchildren after parental divorce are contemporary concerns.
• 10.6: Late Adulthood
• 10.7: Treating Delirium
• 10.8: Late Adulthood
10: Late Adulthood
Learning Objectives
• Differentiate between impaired, normal, and optimal aging.
• Report numbers of people in late adulthood age categories in the United States.
• Discuss changes in the age structure of society in the U. S. and globally.
• Report life expectancies in the United States based on gender, race, and ethnicity.
• Explain the reasons for changes in life expectancies.
• Identify examples of ageism.
• Compare primary and secondary aging.
• Report on the leading sources of secondary aging.
• Describe changes in the senses in late adulthood.
• Discuss the impact of aging on the sensory register, working memory, and long-term memory.
• Describe theories of aging.
• Define Hayflick Limit.
• Evaluate previous ideas about aging and cognition based on new research.
• Describe abnormal memory loss due to Alzheimer’s disease, delirium, and dementia.
• Differentiate between organic and nonorganic causes of dementia.
• Describe Erikson’s psychosocial stage for late adulthood.
• Contrast disengagement, activity, and continuity theories of aging.
• Describe ways in which people are productive in late adulthood.
• Describe grandparenting styles.
• Compare marriage, divorce, being single, and widowhood in late adulthood.
• Report rates at which people in late adulthood require long-term care.
• Examine caregiving for dependent older adults.
• Define socio-emotional selectivity theory.
• Classify types of elder abuse.
Photo Courtesy Overstreet
Defining Late Adulthood: Age or Quality of Life?
We are considered in late adulthood from the time we reach our mid-sixties until death. In this lesson, we will learn how many people are in late adulthood, how that number is expected to change, and how life changes and continues to be the same as before in late adulthood. About 13 percent of the U. S. population or 38.9 million Americans are 65 and older (U. S. Census Bureau, 2011). This number is expected to grow to 88.5 million by the year 2050 at which time people over 65 will make up 20 percent of the population. This group varies considerably and is divided into categories of 65 plus, 85 plus, and centenarians for comparison by the census. Developmentalists, however, divide this population in to categories based on health and social well-being. Optimal aging refers to those who enjoy better health and social well-being than average. Normal aging refers to those who seem to have the same health and social concerns as most of those in the population. However, there is still much being done to understand exactly what normal aging means. Impaired aging refers to those who experience poor health and dependence to a greater extent than would be considered normal. Aging successfully involves making adjustments as needed in order to continue living as independently and actively as possible. This is referred to as selective optimization with compensation and means, for example, that a person who can no longer drive, is able to find alternative transportation. Or a person who is compensating for having less energy, learns how to reorganize the daily routine to avoid over-exertion. Perhaps nurses and other allied health professionals working with this population will begin to focus more on helping patients remain independent than on simply treating illnesses. Promoting health and independence are important for successful aging.
Age Categories: 65 to 74
These 18.3 million Americans tend to report greater health and social well-being than older adults. Having good or excellent health is reported by 41 percent of this age group (Center for Disease Control, 2004). Their lives are more similar to those of midlife adults than those who are 85 and older. This group is less likely to require long-term care, to be dependent or to be poor, and more likely to be married, working for pleasure rather than income, and living independently. About 65 percent of men and 50 percent of women between the ages of 65-69 continue to work full-time (He et al., 2005). Physical activity tends to decrease with age, despite the dramatic health benefits enjoyed by those who exercise. People with more education and income are more likely to continue being physically active. And males are more likely to engage in physical activity than are females. The majority of the young-old continue to live independently. Only about 3 percent of those 65-74 need help with daily living skills as compared with about 22.9 percent of people over 85. (Another way to consider think of this is that 97 percent of people between 65-74 and 77 percent of people over 85 do not require assistance!) This age group is less likely to experience heart disease, cancer, or stroke than the old, but nearly as likely to experience depression (U. S. Census, 2005).
75 to 84
This age group is more likely to experience limitations on physical activity due to chronic disease such as arthritis, heart conditions, hypertension (especially for women), and hearing or visual impairments. Rates of death due to heart disease, cancer, and cerebral vascular disease are double that experienced by people 65-74. Poverty rates are 3 percent higher (12 percent) than for those between 65 and 74. However, the majority of these 12.9 million Americans live independently or with relatives. Widowhood is more common in this group-especially among women.
85 plus
The number of people 85 and older is 34 times greater than in 1900 and now includes 5.7 million Americans. This group is more likely to require long-term care and to be in nursing homes. However, of the 38.9 million American over 65, only 1.6 million require nursing home care. Sixty-eight percent live with relatives and 27 percent live alone (He et al., 2005; U. S. Census Bureau, 2011).
Centenarians
There are 104,754 people over 100 years of aging living in the United States. This number is expected to increase to 601,000 by the year 2050 (U. S. Census Bureau, 2011). The majority is between ages 100 and 104 and eighty percent are women. Out of almost 7 billion people on the planet, about 25 are over 110. Most live in Japan, a few live the in United States and three live in France (National Institutes of Health, 2006). These “super-Centenarians” have led varied lives and probably do not give us any single answers about living longer. Jeanne Clement smoked until she was 117. She lived to be 122. She also ate a diet rich in olive oil and rode a bicycle until she was 100. Her family had a history of longevity. Pitskhelauri (in Berger, 2005) suggests that moderate diet, continued work and activity, inclusion in family and community life, and exercise and relaxation are important ingredients for long life.
The “Graying” of America and the Globe:
This trend toward an increasingly aged population has been referred to as the “graying of America.” However, populations are aging in most other countries of the world. (One exception to this is in sub-Saharan Africa where mortality rates are high due to HIV/AIDS) (He et al., 2005). There are 520 million people over 65 worldwide. This number is expected to increase to 1.53 billion by 2050 (from 8 percent to 17 percent of the global population.) Currently, four countries, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Monaco, have 20 percent of their population over 65. China has the highest number of people over 65 at 112 million (U. S. Census Bureau, 2011).
As the population ages, concerns grow about who will provide for those requiring long-term care. In 2000, there were about 10 people 85 and older for every 100 persons between ages 50 and 64. These midlife adults are the most likely care providers for their aging parents. The number of old requiring support from their children is expected to more than double by the year 2040 (He et al., 2005). These families will certainly need external physical, emotional, and financial support in meeting this challenge.
REFERENCES:
Berger, K. S. (2005). The developing person through the life span (6th ed.). New York: Worth.
Berk, L. (2007). Development through the life span (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Brehm, S. S., Miller, R., Perlman, D., & Campbell, S. (2002). Intimate relationships. (3rd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Busse, E. W. (1969). Theories of aging. In E. W. Busse & E. Pfeiffer (Eds.), Behavior and adaptation in late life. (pp. 11-31).
Cahill, S., South, K., & Spade, J. (n.d.). Outing age: Public policy issues affecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender elders | National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. National Gay and Lesbian Task Force | Building LGBT Political Power from the Ground up. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.thetaskforce.org/reports_...rch/outing_age
Carroll, J. (2007). Sexuality now: Embracing diversity (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Carstenson, L. L., Fung, H. H., & Charles, S. T. (2003). Socioemotional selectivity theory and the regulation of emotion in the second half of life. Motivation and Emotion, 27, 103-123.
Chapman, D. P., Williams, S. M., Strine, T. W., Anda, R. F., & Moore, M. J. (2006, February 18). Preventing Chronic Disease: April 2006: 05_0167. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2006/apr/05_0167.htm
Cherlin, A. J., & Furstenberg, F. F. (1986). The new American grandparent: A place in the family, a life apart. New York: Basic Books.
Chevan, A. (1996). As cheaply as one: Cohabitation in the older population. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58, 656-667.
Demographic Data on Aging. (n.d.). National Institute on Aging. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.nia.nih.gov/ResearchInfor...aphicAging.htm
Dollemore, D. (2006, August 29). Publications. National Institute on Aging. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.nia.nih.gov/HealthInforma...theMicroscope/
Erikson, E. H. (1980). Identity and the life cycle. New York: Norton.
He, W., Sengupta, M., Velkoff, V., & DeBarros, K. (n.d.). U. S. Census Bureau, Current Popluation Reports, P23-209, 65+ in the United States: 2005 (United States, U. S. Census Bureau). Retrieved May 7, 2011, from http://www.census.gov/prod/1/pop/p23-190/p23-190.html
Kwong, T., & Ryan, E. (1999). Intergenerational communication: The survey interview as a social exchange. In S. See (Author) & N. Schwarz, D. C. Parker, B. Knauer, & Sudman (Eds.), Cognition, aging, and self reports. Philadelphia: Psychology Press.
Meegan, S. P., & Berg, C. A. (2002). Contexts, functions, forms, and processes of collaborative everyday problem solving in older adulthood. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 26(1), 6-15. doi: 10.1080/01650250143000283
National Center for Health Statistics: Health, United States, 2010: With special feature on death and dying. (n.d.). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus.htm
National Institute on Aging, Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging Home Page. (n.d.). National Institute on Aging – Intramural Research Program. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.grc.nia.nih.gov/branches/blsa/blsa.htm
Newsroom: Facts for Features & Special Editions: Facts for Features: Older Americans Month: May 2010. (2011, February 22). Census Bureau Home Page. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.census.gov/newsroom/relea...cb10-ff06.html
Overstreet, L. (2006). Unhappy birthday: Stereotypes in late adulthood. Unpublished manuscript, Texas Woman’s University.
Strough, J., Hicks, P. J., Swenson, L. M., Cheng, S., & Barnes, K. A. (2003). Collaborative everyday problem solving: Interpersonal relationships and problem dimensions. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 56, 43-66.
Tennstedt, S., Morris, J., Unverzagt, F., Rebok, G., Willis, S., Ball, K., & Marsiske, M. (n.d.). ACTIVE: Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly Clinical Trial | Clinical Trials Search.org. Clinical Trials Database and Worldwide Listings | ClinicalTrialsSearch.org. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.clinicaltrialssearch.org/...t00298558.html
Umberson, D., Williams, K., Powers, D., Hui, L., & Needham, B. (2006). You make me sick: Marital quality and health over the life course. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 47(1), 1-16.
United States, National Center for Health Statistics. (2002). National Vital Statistics Report, 50(16). Retrieved May 7, 2011, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/LCWK1_2000.pdf
United States, National Institute on Aging. (n.d.). Alzheimer’s Disease, Education, and Referral Center. Update January 21, 2011. Retrieved February 17, 2011, from http://www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers/Pu...9/Introduction
Uscher, J. (2006, January). How to make a world of difference-without leaving home. AARP The Magazine – Feel Great. Save Money. Have Fun. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.aarpmagazine.org/lifestyl...unteering.html
Weitz, R. (2007). The sociology of health, illness, and health care : A critical approach. Wadsworth Publishing. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/10%3A_Late_Adulthood/10.01%3A_Introduction_to_Late_Adulthood.txt |
Life Expectancy and Quality of Life
One way to prepare for the future is to find ways to improve quality of life. Life expectancy in 1900 was about 47 years. Today, life expectancy for all races is 77.9 (75.4 for males and 80.4 for females.) For whites, life expectancy is 75.9 for males and 80.8 for females. For black males, life expectancy is 70 and is 76.8 for black females (U. S. Census Bureau, 2011). Historic racism or years of living under oppressive prejudice and discrimination can increase the incidence of stress-related illness and contribute to a lower life expectancy. The United States ranks 17th among other countries for its life expectancy for women and 19th for men. Japanese women and Swedish men have the longest life expectancies (He et al., 2005).
Increased life expectancy brings concern over the health and independence of those living longer. Greater attention is now being given to the number of years a person can expect to live without disability which is referred to as active life expectancy. When this distinction is made, we see that although women live longer than men, they are more at risk of living with disability (Weitz, 2007). What factors contribute to poorer health? Marriage has been linked to longevity, but spending years in a stressful marriage can increase the risk of illness. This negative effect is experienced more by women than men and seems accumulates through the years. Its impact on health may not occur until a woman reaches 70 or older (Umberson, Williams, et. al., 2006). Sexism can also create chronic stress. The stress experienced by women as they work outside the home as well as care for family members can also ultimately have a negative impact on health. Poorer health in women is further attributed to an increase in rates of smoking by women in recent years (He et als, 2005).
The shorter life expectancy for men in general, is attributed to greater stress, poorer attention to health, more involvement in dangerous occupations, and higher rates of death due to accidents, homicide, and suicide. Social support can increase longevity. For men, life expectancy and health seems to improve with marriage. Spouses are less likely to engage in risky health practices and wives are more likely to monitor their husband’s diet and health regimes. But men who live in stressful marriages can also experience poorer health as a result.
Key players in improving the quality of life among older adults will be those adults. By exercising, reducing stress, stopping smoking, limiting use of alcohol, and consuming more fruits and vegetables, older adults can expect to live longer and more active lives. (He et. als, 2005). Stress reduction both in late adulthood and earlier in life is also crucial. The reduction of societal stressors can promote active life expectancy. In the last 40 years, smoking rates have decreased, but obesity has increased, and physical activity has only modestly increased.
Attitudes about Aging
Stereotypes about people of in late adulthood lead many to assume that aging automatically brings poor health and mental decline. These stereotypes are reflected in everyday conversations, the media and even in greeting cards (Overstreet, 2006). The following examples serve to illustrate.
1) Grandpa, fishing pole in one hand, pipe in the other, sits on the ground and completes a story being told to his grandson with “. . . and that, Jimmy, is the tale of my very first colonoscopy.” The message inside the card reads, “Welcome to the gross personal story years.” (Shoebox, A Division of Hallmark Cards.)
2) An older woman in a barber shop cuts the hair of an older, dozing man. “So, what do you say today, Earl?” she asks. The inside message reads, “Welcome to the age where pretty much anyplace is a good place for a nap.” (Shoebox, A Division of Hallmark Cards.)
3) A crotchety old man with wire glasses, a crumpled hat, and a bow tie grimaces and the card reads, “Another year older? You’re at the age where you should start eatin’ right, exercisin’, and takin’ vitamins . . .” The inside reads, “Of course you’re also at the age where you can ignore advice by actin like you can’t hear it.” (Hallmark Cards, Inc.)
Of course, these cards are made because they are popular. Age is not revered in the United States, and so laughing about getting older is one way to get relief. The attitudes are examples of ageism, prejudice based on age. Stereotypes such as these can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy in which beliefs about one’s ability results in actions that make it come true. A positive, optimistic outlook about aging and the impact one can have on improving health is essential to health and longevity. Removing societal stereotypes about aging and helping older adults reject those notions of aging is another way to promote health and active life expectancy among the old.
Primary and Secondary Aging
Healthcare providers need to be aware of which aspects of aging are reversible and which ones are inevitable. By keeping this distinction in mind, caregivers may be more objective and accurate when diagnosing and treating older patients. And a positive attitude can go a long way toward motivating patients to stick with a health regime. Unfortunately, stereotypes can lead to misdiagnosis. For example, it is estimated that about 10 percent of older patients diagnosed with dementia are actually depressed or suffering from some other psychological illness (Berger, 2005). The failure to recognize and treat psychological problems in older patients may be one consequence of such stereotypes.
Primary aging refers to the inevitable changes associated with aging (Busse, 1969). These changes include changes in the skin and hair, height and weight, hearing loss, and eye disease. However, some of these changes can be reduced by limiting exposure to the sun, eating a nutritious diet, and exercising.
Skin and hair change as we age. The skin becomes drier, thinner, and less elastic as we age. Scars and imperfections become more noticeable as fewer cells grow underneath the surface of the skin. Exposure to the sun, or photoaging, accelerates these changes. Graying hair is inevitable. And hair loss all over the body becomes more prevalent.
Height and weight vary with age. Older people are more than an inch shorter than they were during early adulthood (Masoro in Berger, 2005). This is thought to be due to a settling of the vertebrae and a lack of muscle strength in the back. Older people weigh less than they did in mid-life. Bones lose density and can become brittle. This is especially prevalent in women. However, weight training can help increase bone density after just a few weeks of training.
Muscle loss occurs in late adulthood and is most noticeable in men as they lose muscle mass. Maintaining strong leg and heart muscles is important for independence. Weight-lifting, walking, swimming, or engaging in other cardiovascular exercises can help strengthen the muscles and prevent atrophy.
Visual Problems: The majority of people over 65 have some difficulty with vision, but most is easily corrected with prescriptive lenses. Three percent of those 65 to 74 and 8 percent of those 75 and older have hearing or vision limitations that hinder activity. The most common causes of vision loss or impairment are glaucoma, cataracts, age-related macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy (He et al., 2005).
Hearing Loss is experienced by 30 percent of people age 70 and older. Almost half of people over 85 have some hearing loss (He et al., 2005). Among those who are in nursing homes, rates are higher. Older adults are more likely to seek help with vision impairment than with hearing loss, perhaps due to the stereotype that older people who have difficulty hearing are also less mentally alert. Being unable to hear causes people to withdraw from conversation and others to ignore them or shout. Unfortunately, shouting is usually high pitched and can be harder to hear than lower tones. The speaker may also begin to use a patronizing form of ‘baby talk’ known as elderspeak (See et al., 1999). This language reflects the stereotypes of older adults as being dependent, demented, and childlike. Image others speaking to you in that way. How would you feel? I am reminded of a man dying at home and a hospice worker, on shift for the first time, comes to his bedside and shouts, “Hi, baby. Want me to rub your little feet?” His response was an indignant look of disapproval.
Hearing loss is more prevalent in men than women. And it is experienced by more white, non-Hispanics than by Black men and women. Smoking, middle ear infections, and exposure to loud noises increase hearing loss.
In summary, primary aging can be compensated for through exercise, corrective lenses, nutrition, and hearing aids. And, more importantly, by reducing stereotypes about aging, people of age can maintain self-respect, recognize their own strengths, and count on receiving the respect and social inclusion they deserve.
Secondary Aging
Secondary aging refers to changes that are caused by illness or disease. These illnesses reduce independence, impact quality of life, affect family members and other caregivers, and bring financial burden. Some of the most prevalent illnesses that cause impairment are discussed below.
Arthritis: This is the leading cause of disability in older adults. Arthritis results in swelling of the joints and connective tissue that limits mobility. Arthritis is more common among women than men and increases with age. About 19.3 percent of people over 75 are disabled with arthritis; 11.4 percent of people between 65 and 74 experience this disability.
Hypertension: Hypertension or high blood pressure and associated heart disease and circulatory conditions increase with age. Hypertension disables 11.1 percent of 65 to 74 year olds and 17.1 percent of people over 75. Rates are higher among women and Blacks. Rates are highest for women over 75.
Heart Disease and Stroke: Coronary disease and stroke are higher among older men than women. The incidence of stroke is lower than that of coronary disease.
Diabetes: In 2008, 27 percent of those 65 and older had diabetes. Rates are higher among Mexican origin individuals and Blacks than non-Hispanic whites. The treatment for diabetes includes dietary changes, increasing physical activity, weight loss for those who are overweight, and medication (National Institute on Aging, 2011).
Cancer: Men over 75 have the highest rates of cancer at 28 percent. Women 65 and older have rates of 17 percent. Rates for older non-Hispanic Whites are twice as high as for Hispanics and non-Hispanic Blacks. The most common types of cancer found in men are prostate and lung cancer. Breast and lung cancer are the most common forms in women.
Osteoporosis: Osteoporosis increases with age as bones become brittle and lose minerals. Bone loss is four times more likely in women than in men and becomes even more prevalent in women 85 and older. Whites suffer osteoporosis more than do non-Hispanic Blacks.
Alzheimer’s disease: Between 2.4 and 5.1 million people in the United States suffer with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (National Institute on Aging, 2011). This disease is not becomes more prevalent with age, but is not inevitable. This typically appears after age 60 but develops slowly for years before it’s appearance. Social support, and aerobic exercise can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. As the large cohort of Baby Boomers begins turning 65 in 2011, the number of cases of Alzheimer’s disease is expected to increase dramatically. Where will these people receive care? Seventy percent of AD patients are cared for in the home. Such care can be emotionally, financially, and physically stressful. Most AD patients live 8 to 10 years with the disease and long-term care costs an average of \$174,000 per patient (He et al., 2005).
Normal Aging
The Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging (2006) began in 1958 and has traced the aging process in 1,400 people from age 20 to 90. Researchers from the BLSA have found that the aging process varies significantly from individual to individual and from one organ system to another. Kidney function may deteriorate earlier in some individuals. Bone strength declines more rapidly in others. Much of this is determined by genetics, lifestyle, and disease. However, some generalizations about the aging process have been found:
• Heart muscles thicken with age
• Arteries become less flexible
• Lung capacity diminishes
• Brain cells lose some functioning but new neurons can also be produced
• Kidneys become less efficient in removing waste from the blood
• The bladder loses its ability to store urine
• Body fat stabilizes and then declines
• Muscle mass is lost without exercise
• Bone mineral is lost. Weight bearing exercise slows this down.
Theories Of Aging
Why do we age?
There are a number of attempts to explain why we age and many factors that contribute to aging. Genetics, diet, lifestyle, activity, and exposure to pollutants all play a role in the aging process.
Cell Life
Cells divide a limited number of times and then stop. This phenomenon, known as the Hayflick limit, is evidenced in cells studied in test tubes which divide about 50 times before becoming senescent. Senescent cells do not die. They simply stop replicating. Senescent cells can help limit the growth of other cells which may reduce risk of developing tumors when younger, but can alter genes later in life and result in promoting the growth of tumors as we age (Dollemore, 2006). Limited cell growth is attributed to telomeres which are the tips of the protective coating around chromosomes. Each time cells replicate, the telomere is shortened. Eventually, loss of telomere length is thought to create damage to chromosomes and produce cell senescence.
Biochemistry and Aging
Free Radical Theory: As we metabolize oxygen, mitochondria in the cells convert oxygen to adenosine triphosphate (ATP) which provides energy to the cell. Unpaired electrons are a by product of this process and these unstable electrons cause cellular damage as they find other electrons with which to bond. These free radicals have some benefits and are used by the immune system to destroy bacteria. However, cellular damage accumulates and eventually reduces functioning of organs and systems. Many food products and vitamin supplements are promoted as age-reducing. Antioxidant drugs have been shown to increase the longevity in nematodes (small worms), but the ability to slow the aging process by introducing antioxidants in the diet is still controversial.
Protein Crosslinking: This theory focuses on the role blood sugar, or glucose, plays in the aging of cells. Glucose molecules attach themselves to proteins and form chains or crosslinks. These crosslinks reduce the flexibility of tissue and tissue become stiff and loses functioning. The circulatory system becomes less efficient as the tissue of the heart, arteries and lungs lose flexibility. And joints grow stiff as glucose combines with collegen. (To conduct your own demonstration of this process, take a piece of meat and place it in a hot skillet. The outer surface of the meat will caramelize and the tissue will become stiff and hard.)
DNA Damage: As we live, DNA is damaged by environmental factors such as toxic agents, pollutants, and sun exposure (Dollemore, 2006). This results in deletions of genetic material, and mutations in the DNA that is duplicated in new cells. The accumulation of these errors results in reduced functioning in cells and tissues.
Decline in the Immune System: As we age, B-lymphocytes and T-lymphocytes become less active. These cells are crucial to our immune system as they secrete antibodies and directly attack infected cells. The thymus, where T-cells are manufactured, shrinks as we age. This reduces our body’s ability to fight infection Berger, 2005). | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/10%3A_Late_Adulthood/10.02%3A_Physical_Development.txt |
How Does Aging Affect Memory?
The Sensory Register
Aging may create small decrements in the sensitivity of the sensory register. And, to the extent that a person has a more difficult time hearing or seeing, that information will not be stored in memory. This is an important point, because many older people assume that if they cannot remember something, it is because their memory is poor. In fact, it may be that the information was never seen or heard.
The Working Memory
Older people have more difficulty using memory strategies to recall details (Berk, 2007). As we age, the working memory loses some of its capacity. This makes it more difficult to concentrate on more than one thing at a time or to keep remember details of an event. However, people compensate for this by writing down information and avoiding situations where there is too much going on at once to focus on a particular cognitive task.
The Long-Term Memory
This type of memory involves the storage of information for long periods of time. Retrieving such information depends on how well it was learned in the first place rather than how long it has been stored. If information is stored effectively, an older person may remember facts, events, names and other types of information stored in long-term memory throughout life. The memory of adults of all ages seems to be similar when they are asked to recall names of teachers or classmates. And older adults remember more about their early adulthood and adolescence than about middle adulthood (Berk, 2007). Older adults retain semantic memory or the ability to remember vocabulary.
Younger adults rely more on mental rehearsal strategies to store and retrieve information. Older adults focus rely more on external cues such as familiarity and context to recall information (Berk, 2007). And they are more likely to report the main idea of a story rather than all of the details (Jepson & Labouvie-Vief, in Berk, 2007).
A positive attitude about being able to learn and remember plays an important role in memory. When people are under stress (perhaps feeling stressed about memory loss), they have a more difficult time taking in information because they are preoccupied with anxieties. Many of the laboratory memory tests require compare the performance of older and younger adults on timed memory tests in which older adults do not perform as well. However, few real life situations require speedy responses to memory tasks. Older adults rely on more meaningful cues to remember facts and events without any impairment to everyday living.
New Research on Aging and Cognition
Can the brain be trained in order to build cognitive reserve to reduce the effects of normal aging? ACTIVE (Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly), a study conducted between 1999 and 2001 in which 2,802 individuals age 65 to 94, suggests that the answer is “yes”. These participants (26 percent who were African-American) received 10 group training sessions and 4 follow up sessions to work on tasks of memory, reasoning, and speed of processing. These mental workouts improved cognitive functioning even 5 years later. Many of the participants believed that this improvement could be seen in everyday tasks as well (Tennstedt, Morris, et al, 2006). Learning new things, engaging in activities that are considered challenging, and being physically active at any age may build a reserve to minimize the effects of primary aging of the brain.
Wisdom
Wisdom is the ability to use common sense and good judgment in making decisions. A wise person is insightful and has knowledge that can be used to overcome obstacles in living. Does aging bring wisdom? While living longer brings experience, it does not always bring wisdom. Those who have had experience helping others resolve problems in living and those who have served in leadership positions seem to have more wisdom. So it is age combined with a certain type of experience that brings wisdom. However, older adults do have greater emotional wisdom or the ability to empathize with and understand others.
Problem Solving
Problem solving tasks that require processing non-meaningful information quickly (a kind of task that might be part of a laboratory experiment on mental processes) declines with age. However, real life challenges facing older adults do not rely on speed of processing or making choices on one’s own. Older adults are able to make resolve everyday problems by relying on input from others such as family and friends. And they are less likely than younger adults to delay making decisions on important matters such as medical care (Strough et al., 2003; Meegan & Berg, 2002).
Abnormal Loss of Cognitive Functioning During Late Adulthood
Dementia refers to severely impaired judgment, memory or problem-solving ability. It can occur before old age and is not an inevitable development even among the very old. Dementia can be caused by numerous diseases and circumstances, all of which result in similar general symptoms of impaired judgment, etc. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and is incurable. But there are also nonorganic causes of dementia that can be prevented. Malnutrition, alcoholism, depression, and mixing medications can result in symptoms of dementia. If these causes are properly identified, they can be treated. Cerebral vascular disease can also reduce cognitive functioning.
Delirium is a sudden experience of confusion experienced by some older adults. Read the article and listen to the story, Treating Delirium: An Often Missed Diagnosis, for more information on treating delirium and the possible links between delirium and Alzheimer’s Disease. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/10%3A_Late_Adulthood/10.03%3A_Cognitive_Development.txt |
Integrity vs. Despair
How do people cope with old age? Erikson (1980) believed that late adulthood is a time for making sense out of one’s life, finding meaning to one’s existence, and adjusting to inevitable death. He called this stage integrity vs. despair. Imagine being able to look back on life with the sense that if you had a chance to do it over again; you would probably make many of the same choices. Of course, life does not typically involve perfect choices. But a sense of contentment and acceptance, understanding and tolerance of others are important features of integrity. Bitterness and resentments in relationships and life events can bring a sense of despair at the end of life.
Disengagement vs. Activity
Disengagement theory (Cummings & Henry, 1961) suggests that during late adulthood, the individual and society mutually withdraw. Older people become more isolated from others and less concerned or involved with life in general. This once popular theory is now criticized as being ageist and used in order to justify treating older adults as second class citizens. Activity theory suggests that people are barred form meaningful experiences as they age. But older adults continue to want to remain active and work toward replacing opportunities lost with new ones. Continuity theory suggests that as people age, they continue to view the self in much the same way as they did when they were younger. Their approach to problems, goals, and situations is much the same as it was before. They are the same individuals, but simply in older bodies. Consequently, older adults continue to maintain their identity even as they give up previous roles. For example, a retired Coast Guard commander attends reunions with shipmates, stays interested in new technology for home use, is meticulous in the jobs he does for friends or at church, and displays mementos of life on the ship. He is able to maintain a sense of self as a result. We do not give up who we are as we age. Hopefully, we are able to share these aspects of our identity with others throughout life. Focusing on what a person can do and pursuing those interests and activities is one way to optimize and maintain self-identity.
Generativity in Late Adulthood
People in late adulthood continue to be productive in many ways. These include work, education, volunteering, family life, and intimate relationships.
Productivity in Work
Some continue to be productive in work. Mandatory retirement is now illegal in the United States. However, we find that many do choose retirement by age 65 and most leave work by choice. Those who do leave by choice adjust to retirement more easily. Chances are, they have prepared for a smoother transition by gradually giving more attention to an avocation or interest as they approach retirement. And they are more likely to be financially ready to retire. Those who must leave abruptly for health reasons or because of layoffs or downsizing have a more difficult time adjusting to their new circumstances. Men, especially, can find unexpected retirement difficult. Women may feel less of an identify loss after retirement because much of their identity may have come from family roles as well. But women tend to have poorer retirement funds accumulated from work and if they take their retirement funds in a lump sum (be that from their own or from a deceased husband’s funds), are more at risk of outliving those funds. Women need better financial retirement planning.
Sixteen percent of adults over 65 were in the labor force in 2008 (U. S. Census Bureau 2011). Globally, 6.2 percent are in the labor force and this number is expected to reach 10.1 million by 2016. Many adults 65 and older continue to work either full-time or part-time either for income or pleasure or both. In 2003, 39 percent of full-time workers over 55 were women over the age of 70; 53 percent were men over 70. This increase in numbers of older adults is likely to mean that more will continue to part of the workforce in years to come. (He et al., article, U. S. Census, 2005).
Education
Twenty percent of people over 65 have a bachelors or higher degree. And over 7 million people over 65 take adult education courses (U. S. Census Bureau, 2011). Lifelong learning through continuing education programs on college campuses or programs known as “Elderhostels” which allow older adults to travel abroad, live on campus and study provide enriching experiences. Academic courses as well as practical skills such as computer classes, foreign languages, budgeting, and holistic medicines are among the courses offered. Older adults who have higher levels of education are more likely to take continuing education. But offering more educational experiences to a diverse group of older adults, including those who are institutionalized in nursing homes can bring enhance the quality of life.
Volunteering: Face-to-face and Virtually
About 40 percent of older adults are involved in some type of structured, face-to-face, volunteer work. But many older adults, about 60 percent, engage in a sort of informal type of volunteerism helping out neighbors or friends rather than working in an organization (Berger, 2005). They may help a friend by taking them somewhere or shopping for them, etc. Some do participate in organized volunteer programs but interestingly enough, those who do tend to work part-time as well. Those who retire and do not work are less likely to feel that they have a contribution to make. (It’s as if when one gets used to staying at home, their confidence to go out into the world diminishes.) And those who have recently retired are more likely to volunteer than those over 75 years of age.
New opportunities exist for older adults to serve as virtual volunteers by dialoguing online with others from around their world and sharing their support, interests, and expertise. According to an article from AARP (American Association of Retired Persons), virtual volunteerism has increased from 3,000 in 1998 to over 40,000 participants in 2005. These volunteer opportunities range from helping teens with their writing to communicating with ‘neighbors’ in villages of developing countries. Virtual volunteering is available to those who cannot engage in face-to-face interactions and opens up a new world of possibilities and ways to connect, maintain identity, and be productive (Uscher, 2006).
Religious Activities
People tend to become more involved in prayer and religious activities as they age as well. This provides a social network as well as a belief system that combats the fear of death. It provides a focus for volunteerism and other activities as well. For example, one elderly woman prides herself on knitting prayer shawls that are given to those who are sick. Another serves on the alter guild and is responsible for keeping robes and linens clean and ready for communion.
Political Activism
The elderly are very politically active. They have high rates of voting and engage in letter writing to congress on issues that not only affect them, but on a wide range of domestic and foreign concerns. In the 2008 election, 70 percent of people 65 and older voted. This group tied with 45-65 year olds as having the highest voter turnout (U. S. Census Bureau, 2011). | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/10%3A_Late_Adulthood/10.04%3A_Psychosocial_Development.txt |
Grandparenting
Grandparenting typically begins in midlife rather than late adulthood, but because people are living longer, they can anticipate being grandparents for longer periods of time. Cherlin and Furstenberg (1986) describe three styles of grandparents:
1. Remote: These grandparents rarely see their grandchildren. Usually they live far away from the grandchildren, but may also have a distant relationship. Contact is typically made on special occasions such as holidays or birthdays. Thirty percent of the grandparents studied by Cherlin and Furstenberg were remote.
2. Companionate Grandparents: Fifty-five percent of grandparents studied were described as “companionate”. These grandparents do things with the grandchild but have little authority or control over them. They prefer to spend time with them without interfering in parenting. They are more like friends to their grandchildren.
3. Involved Grandparents: Fifteen percent of grandparents were described as “involved”. These grandparents take a very active role in their grandchild’s life. They children might even live with the grandparent. The involved grandparent is one who has frequent contact with and authority over the grandchild.
An increasing number of grandparents are raising grandchildren today. Issues such as custody, visitation, and continued contact between grandparents and grandchildren after parental divorce are contemporary concerns.
Marriage and Divorce
Fifty-six percent of people over 65 are married. The majority of older men and just over 40 percent of older women are married (He et al., 2005). Seven percent of older men and 9 percent of older women are divorced and about 4 percent of older adults have never married. Many married couples feel their marriage has improved with time and the emotional intensity and level of conflict that might have been experienced earlier, has declined. This is not to say that bad marriages become good ones over the years, but that those marriages that were very conflict-ridden may no longer be together, and that many of the disagreement couples might have had earlier in their marriages may no longer be concerns. Children have grown and the division of labor in the home has probably been established. Men tend to report being satisfied with marriage more than do women. Women are more likely to complain about caring for a spouse who is ill or accommodating a retired husband and planning activities. Older couples continue to engage in sexual activity, but with less focus on intercourse and more on cuddling, caressing, and oral sex (Carroll, 2007).
Divorce after long-term marriage does occur, but is not very common. However, with the number of older adults on the rise, the divorce rate is likely to increase. A longer life expectancy and the expectation of happiness cause some older couples to begin a new life after divorce after 65. Consider Betty who divorced after 40 years of marriage. Her marriage had never been ideal but she stuck with it hoping things would improve and because she didn’t want to hurt her husband’s reputation (he was in a job in which divorce was frowned upon). But she always hoped for more freedom and happiness in life and once her family obligations were no longer as great (the children and grandchildren were on their own), she and her husband divorced. She characterized this as an act of love in that both she and her ex-husband were able to pursue their dreams in later life (Author’s notes). Older adults who have been divorce since midlife tend to have settled into comfortable lives and, if they have raised children, to be proud of their accomplishments as single parents.
Widowhood
Twenty-nine percent of people over 65 are widowed (U. S. Census Bureau, 2011). The death of a spouse is one of life’s most disruptive experiences. It is especially hard on men who lose their wives. Often widowers do not have a network of friends or family members to fall back on and may have difficulty expressing their emotions to facilitate grief. Also, they may have been very dependent on their mates for routine tasks such as cooking, cleaning, etc. In addition, they typically expect to precede their wives in death and by losing a wife, have to adjust to something unexpected. However, if a man can adjust, he will find that he is in great demand, should he decide to remarry.
Widows may have less difficulty because they do have a social network and can take care of their own daily needs. They may have more difficulty financially if their husband’s have handled all the finances in the past. They are much less likely to remarry because many do not wish to and because there are fewer men available. At 65, there are 73 men to every 100 women. The sex ratio becomes even further imbalanced at 85 with 48 men to every 100 women (U. S. Census Bureau, 2011).
Loneliness or solitude? Loneliness is a discrepancy between the social contact a person has and the contacts a person wants (Brehm et al., 2002). It can result from social or emotional isolation. Women tend to experience loneliness as a result of social isolation; men from emotional isolation. Loneliness can be accompanied by a lack of self-worth, impatience, desperation, and depression. This can lead to suicide, particularly in older, white, men who have the highest suicide rates of any age group, higher than Blacks, and higher than for females. Rates of suicide continue to climb and peaks in males after age 85 (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, 2002).
Being alone does not always result in loneliness. For some, it means solitude. Solitude involves gaining self-awareness, taking care of the self, being comfortable alone, and pursuing one’s interests (Brehm et al., 2002). Winnie, aged 80, describes her life alone as comfortable and meaningful. “I’m up early to take care of my 3 year old great-granddaughter who stays with me. We play and have lunch and later her mother comes after her. I love to sing and sing all the time. I sing in the choir. . . I enjoy my mornings at the kitchen table with my coffee. And me and Coco (her dog) enjoy sitting in the sun.” (Author’s notes).
Single, Cohabiting, and Remarried Older Adults
About 4 percent of adults never marry. Many have long-term relationships, however. The never married tend to be very involved in family and care giving and do not appear to be particularly unhappy during late adulthood, especially if they have a healthy network of friends. Friendships tend to be an important influence in life satisfaction during late adulthood. Friends may be more influential than family members for many older adults. According to socioemotional selectivity theory, older adults become more selective in their friendships than when they were younger (Carstensen, Fung, & Charles, 2003). Friendships are not formed in order to enhance status or careers, and may be based purely on a sense of connection or the enjoyment of being together. Most elderly people have at least one close friend. These friends may provide emotional as well as physical support. Being able to talk with friends and rely on others is very important during this stage of life.
About 4 percent of older couples chose cohabitation over marriage (Chevan, 1996). As discussed in our lesson on early adulthood, these couples may prefer cohabitation for financial reasons, may be same-sex couples who cannot legally marry, or couples who do not want to marry because of previous dissatisfaction with marital relationships. There are between 1 and 3 million gay and lesbian older adults in America today and numbers will continue to increase (Cahill et al., 2000). These older adults have concerns over health insurance, being able to share living quarters in nursing homes and assisted living residences where staff members tend not to be accepting of homosexuality and bisexuality. SAGE (Senior Action in a Gay Environment) is an advocacy group working on remedying these concerns. Same-sex couples who have endured prejudice and discrimination through the years and can rely upon one another continue to have support through late adulthood. Those who are institutionalized, however, may find it harder to live together.
Couples, who remarry after midlife, tend to be happier in their marriages than in first marriage. These partners are likely to be more financially independent, have children who are grown, and enjoy a greater emotional wisdom that comes with experience.
Residence
Older adults do not typically relocate far from their previous places of residence during late adulthood. A minority lives in planned retirement communities that require residents to be of a certain age. However, many older adults live in age-segregated neighborhoods that have become segregated as original inhabitants have aged and children have moved on. A major concern in future city planning and development will be whether older adults wish to live in age integrated or age segregated communities.
Older Adults, Caregiving, and Long-Term Care
We previously noted the number of older adults who require long-term care and noted that the number increases with age. Most (70 percent) of older adults who require care receive that care in the home. Most are cared for by their spouse, or by a daughter or daughter-in-law. However, those who are not cared for at home are institutionalized. In 2008, 1.6 million out of the total 38.9 million Americans age 65 and older were nursing home residents (U. S. Census Bureau, 2011). Among 65-74, 11 per 1,000 adults aged 65 and older were in nursing homes. That number increases to 182 per 1,000 after age 85. More residents are women than men, and more are Black than white. As the population of those over 85 continues to increase, more will require nursing home care. Meeting the psychological and social as well as physical needs of nursing home residents is a growing concern. Rather than focusing primarily on food, hygiene, and medication, quality of life within these facilities is important. Residents of nursing homes are sometimes stripped of their identity as their personal possessions and reminders of their life are taken away. A rigid routine in which the residents have little voice can be alienating to an older adult. Routines that encourage passivity and dependence can be damaging to self-esteem and lead to further deterioration of health. Greater attention needs to be given to promoting successful aging within institutions.
Elderly Abuse
Nursing homes have been publicized as places where older adults are at risk of abuse. Abuse and neglect of nursing home residents is more often found in facilities that are run down and understaffed. However, older adults are more frequently abused by family members. The most commonly reported types of abuse are financial abuse and neglect. Victims are usually very frail and impaired and perpetrators are usually dependent on the victims for support. Prosecuting a family member who has financially abused a parent is very difficult. The victim may be reluctant to press charges and the court dockets are often very full resulting in long waits before a case is heard. Granny dumping or the practice of family members abandoning older family members with severe disabilities in emergency rooms is a growing problem. An estimated 100,000 and 200,000 are dumped each year (Tanne in Berk, 2007).
Conclusion
Greater understanding of the needs of older adults and more resources with which to provide for these needs are necessary to promote healthy aging in our growing population of older adults. We are coming to recognize the strengths of late adulthood and to move beyond the stereotypes of aging. This new appreciation of the value of older adults promises to lay the groundwork for a new approach to this period of life.
Additional Links
SHOULD PEOPLE GIVE UP THEIR CAREERS IN LATE ADULTHOOD?
Click on the links below to learn about musicians who didn’t let their age stop them:
• John Mayall
• Les Paul | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/10%3A_Late_Adulthood/10.05%3A_Relationships.txt |
Lecture Transcript
Now we’re going to focus on late adulthood which to a large extent refers to people 65 and older. We’re going to look at some variations within that age group and some theories of late adulthood.
When defining late adulthood, you’ll see a couple of approaches. For example, the Census categories include the young old, or people 65 to 74, the old or people 75 to 84, and the oldest old or people 85 to 100 and then of course the category that’s growing considerably in fact, people 100 plus. Developmentalists focus on quality of life. This is important so that if we see an age, we don’t automatically assume too much about a given individual. Optimal aging seem to have greater health, vibrancy, and social relationships are quite strong, more than normal. Normal aging describes general tendencies for those of a particular age. Impaired aging refers to those who have more severe disability or social isolation than would be characteristic for their chronological age.
We’re going to look age structures in society by exploring population pyramids.
These are population pyramids of the U. S. that start in 1900 and end in the year 2040. When you explore these, one of the reasons I wanted to show you these was to first of all understand how much the population has grown and to explore the impact having a large cohort, the area in pink, indicates the Baby Boom generation. I would like for you to try to think about how that might have influenced stereotypes about late adulthood that we have seen and are now trying to fight against. So we see in these slides first of all in 1900, a much smaller population. And as you can tell, many people did not make it past the age of 50. In fact, we’re looking at fewer people that would be in the “old old” bracket. Perhaps this led to stereotypes of the old that were quite reverent; views that they were wise or had some special knowledge that allowed them to go past a normal life expectancy which at the time was about 47. In 1940 we see that the population increases. In 1960, we see this large cohort indicated in pink at the bottom; a large group born between 1946 and 1964. That group tended to bring about a lot of change in the structure. In 1980, Baby Boomers are in young adulthood. By 2000 they are in adulthood and by 2011 the first Baby Boomers are turning 65 or late adulthood. And we see the numbers in late adulthood in 2040. So consider that the focus has been on Baby Boomers, because they are such a large group, for quite a long time. This ‘younger generation’ tended to be fairly pejorative with respect to aging. So we’ve seen a lot of stereotypes that are negative from this generation.
Have you visited your local pharmacy and looked at birthday cards for someone in late adulthood? If not, I would encourage you to do so. I’m talking about in the United States, because there is considerable difference across cultures with respect to stereotypes about late adulthood. They’ve been particularly negative in the west. If you view these some of those pictures or images, usually cartoons, they depict older people as cranky, unfashionable, hard of hearing, full of disease, and they have very little to offer. A lot of these reflect stereotypes that would be unacceptable if they were applied to some variable other than age, perhaps gender or race.
Now, I’d like for you to test your knowledge.
Exercise:
True or false? There are about 10 million people 65 and older living in the United States. False. There are about 38.9 million people and the number continues to grow.
Exercise:
True or false? About half of those over 65 are in nursing homes. The answer: false. Of those 38.9 million, only 1.6 million are currently living in nursing homes.
Exercise:
True or false? The number of people with Alzheimer’s disease will increase by 2030. True. As more people enter late adulthood, the number of people with Alzheimer’s disease will increase.
10.07: Treating Delirium
Delirium, a sudden onset of confusion, is a relatively common problem among elderly people while hospitalized (affecting more than 2 million seniors a year), but doctors often dismiss the symptoms as dementia. Listen to this NPR link to learn about the importance of diagnosing and treating for delirium in elderly patients.
• Treating Delirium: An Often Missed Diagnosis
10.08: Late Adulthood
Lifespan Psychology Module 10 Late Adulthood from Lumen Learning | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/10%3A_Late_Adulthood/10.06%3A_Late_Adulthood.txt |
• 11.1: Introduction to Death and Dying
A dying process that allows an individual to make choices about treatment, to say goodbyes and to take care of final arrangements is what many people hope for. Such a death might be considered a “good death.” But of course, many deaths do not occur in this way.
• 11.2: Most Common Causes of Death
In 1900, the most common causes of death were infectious diseases which brought death quickly. Today, the most common causes of death are chronic diseases in which a slow and steady decline in health ultimately results in death.
• 11.3: The Process of Dying
Physiological death occurs when the vital organs no longer function. Social death occurs when others begin to withdraw from someone who is terminally ill or has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Psychic death occurs when the dying person begins to accept death and to withdraw from others and regress into the self.
• 11.4: Five Stages of Loss
Kubler-Ross describes five stages of loss experienced by someone who faces the news of their impending death. The process of death is influenced by a person’s life experiences, the timing of their death in relation to life events, the predictability of their death based on health or illness, their belief system, and their assessment of the quality of their own life.
• 11.5: Palliative Care and Hospice
Palliative care focuses on providing comfort and relief from physical and emotional pain to patients throughout their illness even while being treated. Hospice involves caring for dying patients by helping them be as free from pain as possible, providing them with assistance to complete wills and other arrangements for their survivors, giving them social support through the psychological stages of loss, and helping family members cope with the dying process, grief, and bereavement.
• 11.6: Euthanasia
Euthanasia, or helping a person fulfill their wish to die, can happen in two ways: voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Voluntary euthanasia refers to helping someone fulfill their wish to die by acting in such a way to help that person’s life end. Physician-assisted suicide occurs when a physician prescribes the means by which a person can end his or her own life.
• 11.7: Bereavement and Grief
Bereavement refers to outward expressions of grief. Mourning and funeral rites are expressions of loss that reflect personal and cultural beliefs about the meaning of death and the afterlife. Ceremonies provide survivors a sense of closure after a loss. These rites and ceremonies send the message that the death is real and allow friends and loved ones to express their love and duty to those who die. Grief is the psychological, physical, and emotional experience of loss.
• 11.8: Middle and Late Adulthood
• 11.9: Death and Dying
• 11.10: Death and Dying
• 11.11: Middle and Late Adulthood
• 11.12: Unit 4 Exam
Thumbnail: Captain Andrew Drake (1684–1743) sandstone gravestone from the Stelton Baptist Church Edison, New Jersey. (CC BY 2.5; Richard Arthur Norton).
11: Death and Dying
Learning Objectives
• Compare the leading causes of death in the United States with those of developing countries.
• Compare physiological, social, and psychic death.
• List and describe the stages of loss based on various models including that of Kubler-Ross.
• Explain the philosophy and practice of palliative care.
• Describe hospice care.
• Differentiate attitudes toward hospice care based on race and ethnicity.
• Summarize Dame Cicely Saunders’ writings about total pain of the dying.
• Compare euthanasia, passive-euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide.
• Characterize bereavement and grief.
• Express your own ideas about death and dying.
“Everything has to die,” he told her during a telephone conversation.
“I want you to know how much I have enjoyed being with you, having you as my friend, and confidant and what a good father you have been to me. Thank you so much.” she told him.
“You are entirely welcome.” he replied.
He had known for years that smoking will eventually kill him. But he never expected that lung cancer would take his life so quickly or be so painful. A diagnosis in late summer was followed with radiation and chemotherapy during which time there were moments of hope interspersed with discussions about where his wife might want to live after his death and whether or not he would have a blood count adequate to let him precede with his next treatment. Hope and despair exist side by side. After a few months, depression and quiet sadness preoccupied him although he was always willing to relieve others by reporting that he ‘felt a little better’ if they asked. He returned home in January after one of his many hospital stays and soon grew worse. Back in the hospital, he was told of possible treatment options to delay his death. He asked his family members what they wanted him to do and then announced that he wanted to go home. He was ready to die. He returned home. Sitting in his favorite chair and being fed his favorite food gave way to lying in the hospital bed in his room and rejecting all food. Eyes closed and no longer talking, he surprised everyone by joining in and singing “Happy birthday” to his wife, son, and daughter-in-law who all had birthdays close together. A pearl necklace he had purchased 2 months earlier in case he died before his wife’s birthday was retrieved and she told him how proud she would be as she wore it. He kissed her once and then again as she said goodbye. He died a few days later (Author’s notes).
Photo Courtesy Robert Paul Young
A dying process that allows an individual to make choices about treatment, to say goodbyes and to take care of final arrangements is what many people hope for. Such a death might be considered a “good death.” But of course, many deaths do not occur in this way. Not all deaths include such a dialogue with family members or being able to die in familiar surroundings. People die suddenly and alone. People leave home and never return. Children precede parents in death; wives precede husbands, and the homeless are bereaved by strangers.
In this lesson, we look at death and dying, grief and bereavement. We explore palliative care and hospice. And we explore funeral rites and the right to die.
REFERENCES:
Almost one million dying receive hospice care last year: New record. (2004). Senior Journal, (November 3, 2004). Retrieved from http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/El...spiceMonth.htm
Attorney General vs. State of Oregon, Ruling of Supreme Court of the United States, § No. 04-623 (2007).
Berger, K. S. (2005). The developing person through the life span (6th ed.). New York: Worth.
End of Life Issues and Care — Brochure. (n.d.). American Psychological Association (APA). Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.apa.org/topics/death/end-of-life.aspx
Kübler-Ross, E. (1969). On death and dying. [New York]: Macmillan.
Kübler-Ross, E. (1975). Death; The final stage of growth. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall.
Kübler-Ross, E., & Kessler, D. (n.d.). On grief and grieving. New York: Schribner.
Living with grief: Diverstiy and end of life care. (2009). Hospital Foundation of America.
NCHS Pressroom – 2003 Fact Sheet – Hospice Care in the United States. (2003, August 21). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/03...ospicecare.htm
Pattison, E. M. (1977). The experience of dying. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall.
Stein, W. R. (2005, October 05). GONZALES V. OREGON. LII | Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/04-623.ZS.html
Survivor’s Fact Sheet. (n.d.). American Association of Suicidology. Retrieved January 12, 2007, from http://www.suicidology.org/associati...sFactSheet.pdf
United States, Center for Disease Control. (2006, June 26). National Vital Statistics Reports, 54(19). Retrieved February 24, 2007, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nv.../nvsr54_19.pdf
United States, National Institute on Health. (2007, January 7). Hospitals Embrace the Hospice Model. Retrieved February 25, 2007, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/n...ory_43523.html
Weitz, R. (2007). The sociology of health, illness, and health care: A critical approach (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
WHO | What is the deadliest disease in the world? (n.d.). Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.who.int/features/qa/18/en/ | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/11%3A_Death_and_Dying/11.01%3A_Introduction_to_Death_and_Dying.txt |
The United States
In 1900, the most common causes of death were infectious diseases which brought death quickly. Today, the most common causes of death are chronic diseases in which a slow and steady decline in health ultimately results in death. How might this impact the way we think of death, how we grieve, and the amount of control a person has over his or her own dying process?
The leading causes of death and number of deaths per category in 2004 in the United States are listed below. (National Vital Statistics Reports, Center for Disease Control, 2006).
• Heart Disease (654,092)
• Malignant neoplasms (cancer) (550,270)
• Cerebrovascular disease (stroke) (150,147)
• Chronic lower respiratory disease (123,884)
• Accidents (123,884)
• Diabetes Mellitus (106.694)
• Alzheimer’s Disease (72,815)
• Influenza and Pneumonia (65,829)
• Nephritis (61,472)
• Septicemia (42,762)
• Suicide (33,464)
• Chronic Liver Disease (31,647)
• Hypertension and hypertensive renal disease (26,549)
• Parkinson’s disease (22,953)
• Pneumonitis (18,018)
These numbers reflect a change in Alzheimer’s disease which moved up from the 8th leading cause of death to the 7th and influenza and pneumonia moved down in rank from 7th to 8th.
Deadliest Diseases Worldwide
The top 12 deadliest diseases in the world are listed below along with the estimated number of deaths per cause. These figures are for 2002 and do not reflect deaths due to violence or suicide (World Health Organization, World Health Report, 2004). Notice the higher rates of death due to HIV/AIDS, perinatal conditions and diarrheal conditions than is found in the United States. Deaths of infants, young children, young mothers, and men and women in adolescence, young adulthood and midlife are more common. Many of these deaths are due to preventable causes. Ideas about the swiftness and unpredictable nature of death are certainly greater when living under such circumstances.
1. Heart disease (7.2 million)
2. Cerebrovascular disease (5.5 million)
3. Lower respiratory infections (3.9 million)
4. HIV/AIDS (2.8 million)
5. Chronic obstructive pulmonary (2.7 million)
6. Perinatal conditions (2.5 million)
7. Diarrheal diseases (1.8 million)
8. Tuberculosis (1.6 million)
9. Malaria (1.3 million)
10. Trachea, bronchus, lung cancers (1.2 million)
11. Road traffic accidents (1.2 million)
12. Diabetes mellitus (1 million)
A Comparison of Death by Age in the United States:
A comparison of the causes of death in the United States in the year 2007 for people in late adulthood and among all ages is given below. Notice that 29 percent of all deaths were of people ages 85 and older and that rates of death due to heart disease had declined since 1997, although heart disease is still the leading cause of death.
11.03: The Process of Dying
Aspects of Death
One way to understand death and dying is to look more closely at physical death, psychological death, and social death. These deaths do not occur simultaneously. Rather, a person’s physiological, social, and psychic death can occur at different times (Pattison, 1977).
Physiological death occurs when the vital organs no longer function. The digestive and respiratory systems begin to shut down during the gradual process of dying. A dying person no longer wants to eat as digestion slows and the digestive track loses moisture and chewing, swallowing, and elimination become painful processes. Circulation slows and mottling or the pooling of blood may be noticeable on the underside of the body appearing much like bruising. Breathing becomes more sporadic and shallow and may make a rattling sound as air travels through mucus filled passageways. The person often sleeps more and more and may talk less although continues to hear. The kinds of symptoms noted prior to death in patients under hospice care (care focused on helping patients die as comfortably as possible) is noted below.
When a person no longer has brain activity, they are clinically dead. Physiological death may take 72 or fewer hours.
Social death begins much earlier than physiological death. Social death occurs when others begin to withdraw from someone who is terminally ill or has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Those diagnosed with conditions such as AIDS or cancer may find that friends, family members, and even health care professionals begin to say less and visit less frequently. Meaningful discussions may be replaced with comments about the weather or other topics of light conversation. Doctors may spend less time with patients after their prognosis becomes poor. Why do others begin to withdraw? Friends and family members may feel that they do not know what to say or that they can offer no solutions to relieve suffering. They withdraw to protect themselves against feeling inadequate or from having to face the reality of death. Health professionals, trained to heal, may also feel inadequate and uncomfortable facing decline and death. A patient who is dying may be referred to as “circling the drain” meaning that they are approaching death. People in nursing homes may live as socially dead for years with no one visiting or calling. Social support is important for quality of life and those who experience social death are deprived from the benefits that come from loving interaction with others.
Psychic death occurs when the dying person begins to accept death and to withdraw from others and regress into the self. This can take place long before physiological death (or even social death if others are still supporting and visiting the dying person) and can even bring physiological death closer. People have some control over the timing of their death and can hold on until after important occasions or die quickly after having lost someone important to them. They can give up their will to live. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/11%3A_Death_and_Dying/11.02%3A_Most_Common_Causes_of_Death.txt |
Kubler-Ross (1969, 1975) describes five stages of loss experienced by someone who faces the news of their impending death. These “stages” are not really stages that a person goes through in order or only once; nor are they stages that occur with the same intensity. Indeed, the process of death is influenced by a person’s life experiences, the timing of their death in relation to life events, the predictability of their death based on health or illness, their belief system, and their assessment of the quality of their own life. Nevertheless, these stages help us to understand and recognize some of what a dying person experiences psychologically. And by understanding, we are more equipped to support that person as they die.
1. Denial is often the first reaction to overwhelming, unimaginable news. Denial, or disbelief or shock, protects us by allowing such news to enter slowly and to give us time to come to grips with what is taking place. The person who receives positive test results for life-threatening conditions may question the results, seek second opinions, or may simply feel a sense of disbelief psychologically even though they know that the results are true.
2. Anger also provides us with protection in that being angry energizes us to fight against something and gives structure to a situation that may be thrusting us into the unknown. It is much easier to be angry than to be sad or in pain or depressed. It helps us to temporarily believe that we have a sense of control over our future and to feel that we have at least expressed our rage about how unfair life can be. Anger can be focused on a person, a health care provider, at God, or at the world in general. And it can be expressed over issues that have nothing to do with our death; consequently, being in this stage of loss is not always obvious.
3. Bargaining involves trying to think of what could be done to turn the situation around. Living better, devoting self to a cause, being a better friend, parent, or spouse, are all agreements one might willingly commit to if doing so would lengthen life. Asking to just live long enough to witness a family event or finish a task are examples of bargaining.
4. Depression is sadness and sadness is appropriate for such an event. Feeling the full weight of loss, crying, and losing interest in the outside world is an important part of the process of dying. This depression makes others feel very uncomfortable and family members may try to console their loved one. Sometimes hospice care may include the use of antidepressants to reduce depression during this stage.
5. Acceptance involves learning how to carry on and to incorporate this aspect of the life span into daily existence. Reaching acceptance does not in any way imply that people who are dying are happy about it or content with it. It means that they are facing it and continuing to make arrangements and to say what they wish to say to others. Some terminally ill people find that they live life more fully than ever before after they come to this stage.
We no longer think that there is a “right way” to experience the loss. People move through a variety of stages with different frequency and in various ways. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/11%3A_Death_and_Dying/11.04%3A_Five_Stages_of_Loss.txt |
Kubler-Ross’s work was introduced at a period in which the hospice movement began in the United States. This movement focused attention on caring for the dying. Palliative care focuses on providing comfort and relief from physical and emotional pain to patients throughout their illness even while being treated (NIH, 2007). Palliative care is part of hospice programs. Hospice involves caring for dying patients by helping them be as free from pain as possible, providing them with assistance to complete wills and other arrangements for their survivors, giving them social support through the psychological stages of loss, and helping family members cope with the dying process, grief, and bereavement. In order to enter hospice, a patient must be diagnosed as terminally ill with an anticipated death within 6 months. Most hospice care does not include medical treatment of disease or resuscitation although some programs administer curative care as well. The patient is allowed to go through the dying process without invasive treatments. Family members, who have agreed to put their loved one on hospice, may become anxious when the patient begins to experience the death. They may believe that feeding or breathing tubes will sustain life and want to change their decision. Hospice workers try to inform the family of what to expect and reassure them that much of what they see is a normal part of the dying process.
The early hospices established were independently operated and dedicated to giving patients as much control over their own death process as possible. Today, there are more than 4,000 hospice programs and over 1,000 of them are offered through hospitals. Hospice care was given to over 1 million patients in 2004 (NIH, 2007; Senior Journal, 2007). Although hospice care has become more widespread, these new programs are subjected to more rigorous insurance guidelines that dictate the types and amounts of medications used, length of stay, and types of patients who are eligible to receive hospice care (Weitz, 2007). Thus, more patients are being served, but providers have less control over the services they provide, and lengths of stay are more limited. Patients receive palliative care in hospitals and in their homes.
The majority of patients on hospice are cancer patients and typically do not enter hospice until the last few weeks prior to death. The average length of stay is less than 30 days and many patients are on hospice for less than a week (National Center for Health Statistics, 2003). Medications are rubbed into the skin or given in drop form under the tongue to relieve the discomfort of swallowing pills or receiving injections. A hospice care team includes a chaplain as well as nurses and grief counselors to assist spiritual needs in addition to physical ones. When hospice is administered at home, family members may also be part, and sometimes the biggest part, of the care team. Certainly, being in familiar surroundings is preferable to dying in an unfamiliar place. But about 60 to 70 percent of people die in hospitals and another 16 percent die in institutions such as nursing homes (APA Online, 2001). Most hospice programs serve people over 65; few programs are available for terminally ill children (Wolfe et al., in Berger, 2005).
Dame Cicely Saunders founded the hospice movement in Great Britain and described the kinds of pain experienced by those who are dying and their families. These 7 Pains include emotional include physical pain, spiritual pain, intellectual pain, emotional pain, interpersonal pain, financial pain and bureaucratic pain. Hospice care focuses on alleviating physical pain and providing spiritual guidance. Those suffering from Alzheimer’s also experience intellectual pain and frustration as they lose their ability to remember and recognize others. Depression, anger, and frustration are elements of emotional pain, and family members can have tensions that a social worker or clergy member may be able to help resolve. Many patients are concerned with the financial burden their care will create for family members. And bureaucratic pain is also suffered while trying to submit bills and get information about health care benefits or to complete requirements for other legal matters. All of these concerns can be addressed by hospice care teams. Learn more about Saunders in the link provided at the end of this lesson.
The Hospice Foundation of America notes that not all racial and ethnic groups feel the same way about hospice care. African-American families may believe that medical treatment should be pursued on behalf of an ill relative as long as possible and that only God can decide when a person dies. Chinese-American families may feel very uncomfortable discussing issues of death or being near the deceased family member’s body. The view that hospice care should always be used is not held by everyone and health care providers need to be sensitive to the wishes and beliefs of those they serve (Hospital Foundation of America, 2009).
11.06: Euthanasia
Euthanasia, or helping a person fulfill their wish to die, can happen in two ways: voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Voluntary euthanasia refers to helping someone fulfill their wish to die by acting in such a way to help that person’s life end. This can be passive euthanasia such as no longer feeding someone or giving them food. Or it can be active euthanasia such as administering a lethal dose of medication to someone who wishes to die.
Physician-Assisted Suicide: Physician-assisted suicide occurs when a physician prescribes the means by which a person can end his or her own life. Physician-assisted suicide is legal in Oregon, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium. The Oregon Death with Dignity Act of 1997 grants physicians this right. Physician-assisted suicides, however, are rare.
A growing number of the population support physician-assisted suicide. In 2000, a ruling of the U. S. Supreme Court upheld the right of states to determine their laws on physician-assisted suicide despite efforts to limit physicians’ ability to prescribe barbiturates and opiates for their patients requesting the means to end their lives. The position of the Supreme Court is that the debate concerning the morals and ethics surrounding the right to die is one that should be continued (Stein, 2000). As an increasing number of the population enters late adulthood, the emphasis on giving patients an active voice in determining certain aspects of their own death is likely. | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/11%3A_Death_and_Dying/11.05%3A_Palliative_Care_and_Hospice.txt |
Bereavement refers to outward expressions of grief. Mourning and funeral rites are expressions of loss that reflect personal and cultural beliefs about the meaning of death and the afterlife. When asked what type of funeral they would like to have, students responded in a variety of ways; each expressing both their personal beliefs and values and those of their culture.
I would like the service to be at a Baptist church, preferably my Uncle Ike’s small church. The service should be a celebration of life . . .I would like there to be hymns sung by my family members, including my favorite one, “It is Well With my Soul”. . .At the end, I would like the message of salvation to be given to the attendees and an alter call for anyone who would like to give their life to Christ. . .
I want a very inexpensive funeral-the bare minimum, only one vase of flowers, no viewing of the remains and no long period of mourning from my remaining family . . . funeral expenses are extremely overpriced and out of hand. . .
When I die, I would want my family members, friends, and other relatives to dress my body as it is usually done in my country, Ghana. Lay my dressed body in an open space in my house at the night prior to the funeral ceremony for my loved ones to walk around my body and mourn for me. . .
I would like to be buried right away after I die because I don’t want my family and friends to see my dead body and to be scared.
In my family we have always had the traditional ceremony-coffin, grave, tombstone, etc. But I have considered cremation and still ponder which method is more favorable. Unlike cremation, when you are ‘buried’ somewhere and family members have to make a special trip to visit, cremation is a little more personal because you can still be in the home with your loved ones . . .
I would like to have some of my favorite songs played . . .I will have a list made ahead of time. I want a peaceful and joyful ceremony and I want my family and close friends to gather to support one another. At the end of the celebration, I want everyone to go to the Thirsty Whale for a beer and Spang’s for pizza!
When I die, I want to be cremated . . . I want it the way we do it in our culture. I want to have a three day funeral and on the 4th day, it would be my burial/cremation day . . .I want everyone to wear white instead of black, which means they already let go of me. I also want to have a mass on my cremation day.
When I die, I would like to have a befitting burial ceremony as it is done in my Igbo customs. I chose this kind of funeral ceremony because that is what every average person wishes to have.
I want to be cremated . . . I want all attendees wearing their favorite color and I would like the song “Riders on the Storm” to be played . . .I truly hope all the attendees will appreciate the bass. At the end of this simple, short service, attendees will be given multi-colored helium filled balloons . . . released to signify my release from this earth. . .They will be invited back to the house for ice cream cones, cheese popcorn and a wide variety of other treats and much, much, much rock music . . .
I want to be cremated when I die. To me, it’s not just my culture to do so but it’s more peaceful to put my remains or ashes to the world. Let it free and not stuck in a casket.
Ceremonies provide survivors a sense of closure after a loss. These rites and ceremonies send the message that the death is real and allow friends and loved ones to express their love and duty to those who die. Under circumstances in which a person has been lost and presumed dead or when family members were unable to attend a funeral, there can continue to be a lack of closure that makes it difficult to grieve and to learn to live with loss. And although many people are still in shock when they attend funerals, the ceremony still provides a marker of the beginning of a new period of one’s life as a survivor.
Grief is the psychological, physical, and emotional experience of loss. The five stages of loss are experienced by those who are in grief (Kubler-Ross & Kessler, 2005). Grief reactions vary depending on whether a loss was anticipated or unexpected, (parents do not expect to lose their children, for example), and whether or not it occurred suddenly or after a long illness, and whether or not the survivor feels responsible for the death. Struggling with the question of responsibility is particularly felt by those who lose a loved one to suicide. There are numerous survivors for every suicide resulting in 4.5 million survivors of suicide in the United States (American Association of Suicidology, 2007). These survivors may torment themselves with endless “what ifs” in order to make sense of the loss and reduce feelings of guilt. And family members may also hold one another responsible for the loss. The same may be true for any sudden or unexpected death making conflict an added dimension to grief. Much of this laying of responsibility is an effort to think that we have some control over these losses; the assumption being that if we do not repeat the same mistakes, we can control what happens in our life.
Anticipatory grief occurs when a death is expected and survivors have time to prepare to some extent before the loss. Anticipatory grief can include the same denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance experienced in loss. This can make adjustment after a loss somewhat easier, although the stages of loss will be experienced again after the death (Kubler-Ross & Kessler, 2005). A death after a long-term, painful illness may bring family members a sense of relief that the suffering is over. The exhausting process of caring for someone who is ill is over. Disenfranchised grief may be experienced by those who have to hide the circumstances of their loss or whose grief goes unrecognized by others. Loss of an ex-spouse, lover, or pet may be examples of disenfranchised grief.
Yet grief continues as long as there is a loss. It has been said that intense grief lasts about two years or less, but grief is felt throughout life. One loss triggers the feelings that surround another. People grieve with varied intensity throughout the remainder of their lives. It does not end. But it eventually becomes something that a person has learned to live with. As long as we experience loss, we experience grief (Kubler-Ross & Kessler, 2005).
There are layers of grief. Initial denial, marked by shock and disbelief in the weeks following a loss may become an expectation that the loved one will walk in the door. And anger directed toward those who could not save our loved one’s life, may become anger that life did not turn out as we expected. There is no right way to grieve. A bereavement counselor expressed it well by saying that grief touches us on the shoulder from time to time throughout life.
Grief and mixed emotions go hand in hand. A sense of relief is accompanied by regrets and periods of reminiscing about our loved ones are interspersed with feeling haunted by them in death. Our outward expressions of loss are also sometimes contradictory. We want to move on but at the same time are saddened by going through a loved one’s possessions and giving them away. We may no longer feel sexual arousal or we may want sex to feel connected and alive. We need others to befriend us but may get angry at their attempts to console us. These contradictions are normal and we need to allow ourselves and others to grieve in their own time and in their own ways.
The “death-denying, grief-dismissing world” is the modern world (Kubler-Ross & Kessler, 2005, p. 205). We are asked to grieve privately, quickly, and to medicate our suffering. Employers grant us 3 to 5 days for bereavement, if our loss is that of an immediate family member. And such leaves are sometimes limited to no more than one per year. Yet grief takes much longer and the bereaved are seldom ready to perform well on the job. Obviously life does have to continue. But Kubler-Ross and Kessler suggest that contemporary American society would do well to acknowledge and make more caring accommodations to those who are in grief. Listen to this story about Kubler-Ross and her life and work in the link below.
Conclusion
Death and grief are topics that are being given greater consideration. This trend should continue as the population “grays” and our awareness of natural disaster and war, both in the United States and throughout the world grows. Viewing death as an integral part of the lifespan will benefit those who are ill, those who are bereaved, and all of us as friends, caregivers, partners, family members and humans in a global society.
Additional Links
Learn more about some of the topics learned about in this module on late adulthood through the following links:
• Read and hear about the creation of the hospice movement from the obituary of Dame Cicely Saunders.
• Listen to the NPR report about Elizabeth Kubler-Ross: “On Death and Dying”
• See images about the top 10 causes of death
• Listen to the NPR report “Dying Alone, One Woman’s Story”: Home Alone
• Read about Ohio youth who volunteer their service as pallbearers for those who may not have any: Pallbearing as a Public Service
• Music Thanatology | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/11%3A_Death_and_Dying/11.07%3A_Bereavement_and_Grief.txt |
Choose two of the following three options
1. Find examples in the media of at least 3 of Cuber and Harroff’s types of marriages. Describe these.
2. Write an instruction manual for people in midlife or late adulthood to enhance optimal aging.
3. Imagine that you are training others to work with people who are terminally ill or in grief. Advise your group about how to work most effectively with those populations.
11.09: Death and Dying
Lecture Transcript
We now explore the final part of our lessons; death and dying. We are going to look at aspects of death, palliative care or care for the dying, and the grief process.
There have been changes in leading causes of death in the last 25 years. Life expectancy has increased by about 25 years. In the year 1900, infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and influenza were number one killers. But in 2000, chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and stroke are major killers.
The most common causes of death in the United States are heart disease, malignant neoplasms or cancers, cerebral vascular disease or stroke, chronic lower respiratory disease, accidents, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and influenza and pneumonia.
The deadliest diseases worldwide vary depending on the economic conditions of the country. For example, in lower income countries, malaria, diarrheal disease, and perinatal conditions are major causes of death.
There are several aspects of death. Biological death refers to the vital organs ceasing to function. As a person goes through the active process of dying, the body goes through a process of shutting down. This means an increase in sleep, perhaps, the person may stop eating as digestion begins to slow down, the blood may pool on the underside of the body forming dark patches or mottling as circulation slows. And breathing may become more sporadic and raspy. Clinical death occurs when the brain ceases to function.
Social death occurs when others stop visiting or calling on someone who is terminally ill or in the dying process. Even health care providers may spend less time with their terminally ill patients. An informal description I’ve heard when referring to terminally ill patients is that they are “circling the drain” meaning they are on their way out. Most social death occurs because people feel uncomfortable around those who are dying. What do you do for those who are dying? The number one answer is to be there and listen. No one really expects someone to turn it around or offer a solution.
Psychological death occurs when the person begins to accept their death and to withdraw from others psychologically. They may be less interested in normal activities, world events, and social relationships. This can occur much sooner than biological death.
In the late 1960s, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross began to write about death in the United States. She marked the entrance of the hospice movement in her book, “On Death and Dying” published at about that time. Kubler-Ross outlined five psychological stages of coming to grips with one’s terminal illness. These can also apply to coming to grips with the news that a loved one is terminally ill. These five psychological stages include denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. We know that there’s no right way to grieve or to come to grips with one’s own death. But what we may find is that a person can visit these more than once, in different orders, or not at all. Nevertheless, these have been very helpful in understanding what to offer a person who is in this situation.
Hospice is a program that offers death with dignity as much as possible. We’ve seen the hospice movement in the United States since the 1980s. The word hospice comes from a root that means hospitality, a place for travelers, a home for the sick.
The modern hospice movement is traced back to London and Dame Cicely Saunders. She believed that people who are dying should be given autonomy of choices about their life, should be allowed to live always, fully, without being ostracized, and should be offered the mechanisms to die peacefully in comfort.
Saunders offers seven pains or seven areas that hospice needs to address: physical pain, spiritual pain (this is often address by a clergy member as part of a team that delivers hospice care); intellectual pain that may be experienced by those with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia, emotional pain such as depression needs to be addressed; interpersonal pain or the kinds of rifts that come to the surface when someone is dying-between family members. This also needs to be addressed and often is by a social worker who is part of the hospice team. Financial pain: interestingly enough, this may be one of the biggest concerns of a person who is dying as they worry about what kinds of debts or medical expenses they leave behind for family members. Bureaucratic pain: this refers to the difficult, time-consuming task of trying to get information to insurance companies, to file claims, and so on. The hospice team can offer assistance in all of these areas of pain.
Palliative care is a branch of medicine where the care is focused on the dying. In palliative care, comfort and pain relief are major concerns. Some of the discomforts that those who are dying may experience are nausea, shortness of breath, ulcerated bed sores, physical pain. Pain medication is often offered with some controversy of the ‘double-effect.’ Morphine, for example, can not only bring pain relief, but can also accelerate the timing of death. Palliative care is focused on the philosophy that people should be allowed to die with dignity and with as much control over their death as possible.
Hospice includes a team of individuals all geared toward helping the person and their family members go through this process. The RN provides total care. The social worker tends to focus on family and legal issues. The chaplain may be part of the team and focuses on spiritual issues. The CNA provides bathing and grooming and direct patient care. Of course, that’s in concert very often with family members. The physician oversees medications and volunteers provide a number of services. You can read about these and listen to some examples of these at the end of your lesson.
11.10: Death and Dying
Lifespan Psychology Module 11 Death and Dying from Lumen Learning
11.11: Middle and Late Adulthood
Adulthood, Late Adulthood, Death and Dying
1. Summarize physical changes that occur in midlife.
2. Define menopause and explain menopausal changes.
3. What is andropause?
4. How does the climacteric impact sexuality?
5. How does exercise impact aging?
6. Describe the ideal diet for midlife adults.
7. Which cognitive skills increase and decrease in midlife?
8. How do midlife students differ from younger students?
9. Compare the expert and the novice.
10. Is there any such thing as a midlife crisis? Explain.
11. What is Erikson’s stage for midlife adults?
12. What is kinkeeping?
13. Compare types of singles.
14. How does marital satisfaction vary during the life cycle?
15. Describe Cuber and Haroff’s typology of marriages.
16. What does Gottman say about communication in marriage?
17. Describe the stations of divorce.
18. How common is remarriage?
19. What happens to personality in midlife?
20. Compare styles of grandparenting.
21. Compare optimal, usual, and impaired aging.
22. Discuss demographic changes in the age structure found in the United States from 1900 to the present.
23. America and the globe are “graying.”What does this mean?
24. How has life expectancy changed since 1900? Compare life expectancies based on gender and race/ethnicity.
25. What is ageism? Define elderspeak.
26. Compare primary and secondary aging and give examples of each.
27. How common are problems of vision and hearing loss among people 65 and older?
28. Describe theories of aging. Why do we age? (Include definitions of Hayflick limit and telomeres).
29. How does age impact the sensory register, working (short-term), and long-term memory?
30. What is wisdom? Does it come with age?
31. Define abnormal losses of cognitive functioning including dementia and delirium. What are nonorganic causes?
32. Contrast disengagement, activity, and continuity theories of aging.
33. What is socio-emotional selectivity theory?
34. Who cares for older, dependent adults? How many are in nursing homes?
35. Discuss elderly abuse.
36. What are the most common causes of death in the United States?
37. What are the most deadly diseases worldwide?
38. Compare physiological, social, and psychic death.
39. List and describe the five stages of loss.
40. What is palliative care?
41. Describe hospice programs.
42. Who is Dame Cicely Saunders? What are the seven pains?
43. What is anticipatory grief? Disenfranchised grief?
44. Kubler-Ross and Kessler suggest that this is a “death-defying, grief-dismissing world”. What does this mean? | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/11%3A_Death_and_Dying/11.08%3A_Middle_and_Late_Adulthood.txt |
1. After midlife, most males:
1. experience dramatic mood swings.
2. no longer produce sperm.
3. continue to be reproductive.
4. lose their ability to reproduce.
2. Anna is wondering how the climacteric will affect her sexual desire. What can she expect?
1. Her desire will be similar to the way it was before menopause.
2. She will no longer experience sexual desire.
3. Her desire will diminish by about one-third.
4. She will experience a strong increase in testosterone as estrogen levels decline.
3. Which is FALSE with regard to Kubler-Ross’s theory of loss and grief?
1. Denial is one of the stages in the theory.
2. People in grief go through the stages in the order presented.
3. Acceptance is among the stages according to the theory.
4. Anger is one of the stages given in the theory.
4. Which of the following is most likely to decrease with age?
1. vocabulary
2. accumulated facts
3. speed of thinking
4. practical intelligence
5. To developmentalists the term “expert” means
1. one who is gifted in many areas.
2. one who lacks experience but knows many facts.
3. one who is decidedly better than others in a specific area.
4. a genius.
6. An expert tends to:
1. be more conscious of his or her actions than the novice.
2. follow procedures more strictly than the novice.
3. have greater difficulty solving problems than the novice.
4. None of the above
7. Tom has just returned to college at age 52. Compared to his 20 year old classmates,he will probably:
1. be more likely to view the instructor as the “expert”.
2. be better at studying when there are distractions.
3. focus more on rote memorization.
4. be more concerned with the relevance of what is being taught.
8. Samantha wanted to marry, but she never met anyone who suited her and now there are really no potential partners in her age group. What type of single is Samantha?
1. Involuntary permanent
2. Voluntary temporary
3. Involuntary temporary
4. Voluntary permanent
9. Cynthia thinks that all her problems stem from the fact that she can’t find a husband. She’s posted her profile online, she’s asked all her friends if they know of someone who is available, and she still hasn’t had a date in months. What kind of single is Cynthia?
1. Involuntary permanent
2. Involuntary temporary
3. Voluntary permanent
4. Voluntary temporary
10. Marital satisfaction is highest:
1. after the birth of the second child.
2. after the birth of the first child.
3. before the birth of the first child.
4. when the couple is in their 30s.
11. Jannette wants to know a man’s level of education, his career goals, and what kind of car he drives when she considers a man as a potential mate. Joan wants to know if a man is nice, has a sense of humor, and whether or not he shares some of her interests as she considers potential mates. Which of the following is true about Janette and Joan?
1. Janette is seeking an intrinsic marriage.
2. Janette is seeking a utilitarian marriage.
3. Both women are seeking utilitarian marriages.
4. Joan is seeking a utilitarian marriage.
12. These partners were once very much in love but now feel as if they hardly know one another and are no longer attracted to one another. This best illustrates:
1. passive congenial marriage
2. vital marriage
3. total marriage
4. devitalized marriage
13. According to Cuber and Haroff, total marriages:
1. are based primarily on passion.
2. are uncommon.
3. are the most stable kinds of marriages.
4. are very common.
14. You listened to John Gottman describing his research on marriage. What did he report?
1. He reported that compatibility is the most important component of successful marriages.
2. He found that successful couples focus more on the utilitarian aspects of marriage than on passion or chemistry.
3. He reported that same-sex couples have better communication than heterosexual couples.
4. He found that the primary difference between successful and unsuccessful couples is that successful couples have few areas of disagreement.
15. This “station of divorce” involves grieving, understanding what happened to cause the divorce, and feeling complete as a single person again. What is it?
1. the psychic divorce
2. the legal divorce
3. the community divorce
4. the emotional divorce
16. In families, middle-aged adults tend to function as the ___, celebrating family achievements, keeping the family together, and staying in touch with distant relatives.
1. sandwich generation
2. kinkeepers
3. nuclear originators
4. intergenerational gatekeepers
17. How common is remarriage in the United States?
1. About 28 percent of marriages are a remarriage for at least one partner.
2. About half of all marriages are a remarriage for at least one partner.
3. About 10 percent of marriages are a remarriage for at least one partner.
4. About 60 percent of all marriages are a remarriage for at least one partner.
18. Erikson’s stage for adulthood is:
1. Integrity versus Despair
2. Trust versus Mistrust
3. Love versus Work
4. Generativity versus Stagnation
19. When comparing the young-old (65-74), the old (75-84), and the oldest-old (85 plus), we find that:
1. the oldest-old are more likely to be institutionalized.
2. most of the young-old and old-old live independently.
3. the young-old are more similar to midlife adults than to the oldest-old.
4. all of the above.
20. Primary aging refers to the
1. irreversible changes that occur with time.
2. changes that are caused by illness.
3. changes that can be reversed or prevented.
4. changes that are caused by poor health habits.
21. Which of the following is most likely to be a result of ageism?
1. An increase in multigenerational families.
2. Greater interest in the study of gerontology (aging).
3. The use of elderspeak.
4. The participation of the elderly in community activities.
22. John is 65. He believes that from this point on he will likely develop heart disease, lose his memory, become almost deaf, and lose interest in sex. He is anticipating:
1. Optimal aging
2. Usual aging
3. All of the above.
4. Impaired aging
23. The musicians’ websites you viewed best illustrate which theory of aging?
1. Activity theory
2. Continuity theory
3. Intrinsic theory
4. Disengagement theory
24. An older person who does not hear information is having trouble with memory at which level?
1. the knowledge base
2. the working memory
3. the sensory register
4. information organization
25. Wrinkles and a loss of elasticity in the skin would be considered _____ aging.
1. abnormal
2. primary
3. geriatric
4. secondary
26. The term “free radicals” refers to
1. the idea that surgery can free the body of tumors.
2. cancer cells in the body.
3. atoms that have unpaired electrons.
4. the minority of the elderly who rebel against ageism.
27. Tips of the protective coating around chromosomes are called:
1. terminal capsules
2. telomeres
3. free radicals
4. plaques
28. Secondary aging includes:
1. drier skin and hair
2. cancer
3. loss of muscle mass
4. loss of height
29. Which of the following are preventable sources of dementia?
1. overmedication
2. all of the above
3. undernourishment
4. depression
30. The theory that suggests that the elderly and society mutually withdraw from each other is:
1. withdrawal theory.
2. activity theory.
3. continuity theory.
4. disengagement theory.
31. The majority of older adults who require long-term care:
1. receive it in nursing homes.
2. live in assisted-living facilities.
3. receive it in the home.
4. are cared for by their sons
32. The most common form of elderly abuse is:
1. financial abuse by a family member
2. physical abuse by strangers
3. nursing home abuse
4. granny dumping
33. The most common cause of death in the United States is:
1. accidents
2. diabetes
3. heart disease
4. Alzheimer’s disease
34. Leading causes of death worldwide include which of the following?
1. HIV/AIDS
2. malaria
3. All of the above.
4. perinatal conditions
35. Mrs. Cannon can’t believe that the test results just given her by her physician are hers. There must be a mistake. Which stage of grief/loss is reflected in this example?
1. depression
2. denial
3. bargaining
4. anger
36. Care that focuses on relieving pain and suffering is called:
1. remedial care
2. allopathic care
3. palliative care
4. thanatological care
37. This person listed the 7 Ps or pains that people experience when dying:
1. Norm Schaie
2. Cicely Saunders
3. Erik Erikson
4. Kubler-Ross
38. Hospice care is likely to be most in line with views on death and dying held by:
1. Hispanics
2. African Americans
3. White Americans
4. Asian Americans
39. Barbara and Jim have been non-married lovers for 10 years. When Jim dies, Barbara will likely experience which type of grief?
1. Absent grief
2. Anticipatory grief
3. Disenfranchised grief
4. Incomplete grief
40. The audio clips on “Dying Alone” and “Pallbearers as Public Service” both illustrated:
1. The difficulties that men have when their wives precede them in death.
2. None of the above.
3. Concerns of those in same-sex long term relationships regarding death and visitation.
4. Social death.
41. Physician-assisted suicide refers to:
1. Physicians helping terminally ill patients complete the forms required to make their suicides acceptable by law.
2. Physicians providing a terminally ill patient the means with which to end his or her life.
3. Physicians slowly increasing the dosage of pain killers until the patient stops breathing.
4. Physicians administering lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients.
42. In comparison with grief, mourning:
1. is more likely to lead to depression.
2. is more likely to be influenced by cultural practices.
3. occurs more frequently than grief.
4. is less likely to lead to an affirmation of life.
43. According to the story you heard about Kubler-Ross, Kubler-Ross experienced which of the following:
1. She was a devout Christian.
2. She was well-respected in the medical community when she first introduced hospice to the United States.
3. She had the distinction of living until in her early 100s.
4. She was criticized as unscientific.
44. Biologically based physical changes during middle adulthood include ALL BUT WHICH ONE of the following?
1. Diabetes
2. Weight gain
3. Problems with vision
4. Joint pain
45. What percentage of midlife adults experience hearing loss?
1. 29 percent
2. 8 percent
3. about half
4. 14 percent
46. Which is TRUE with respect to the prevalence of disability in midlife among adults in the United States?
1. About 7 percent of people in their 40s have a disability.
2. Rates are higher for those in higher socioeconomic categories.
3. Half of people in their 50s experience a disability.
4. Seventy percent of people in their 60s have at least one form of disability.
47. How can one enjoy good health during midlife?
1. Feel a sense of mastery and control over one’s life.
2. Engage in weight-bearing exercise.
3. All of the above.
4. Monitor one’s nutrition.
48. The median age for having the last menstrual cycle is:
1. 58 and older.
2. 45-50 years of age.
3. 62-63 years of age.
4. 51-52 years of age.
49. Changes in a woman’s menstrual cycle typically occur for:
1. 3 weeks.
2. 5-10 years.
3. 1 to 3 years.
4. 6 months.
50. A television advertisement for estrogen supplements claims to reduce the symptoms of menopause listed below. Which of the following symptoms is not supported by research?
1. Mood swings and irritability.
2. Hot flashes.
3. A loss of sexual desire.
4. Weight gain.
12.01: Unit 1 (Lessons 1-3)
1. D
2. B
3. B
4. C
5. C
6. B
7. B
8. C
9. B
10. C
11. A
12. D
13. D
14. A
15. A
16. B
17. C
18. B
19. C
20. D
12.02: Unit 2 (Lessons 4-6)
1. B
2. C
3. A
4. A
5. D
6. D
7. C
8. D
9. D
10. C
11. A
12. B
13. B
14. B
15. C
16. B
17. C
18. A
19. A
20. B
21. D
22. D
23. A
24. C
25. B
26. A
27. C
28. C
29. D
30. A
31. A
32. B
33. B
34. A
35. B
36. C
37. D
38. C
39. B
40. D
41. C
42. B
43. D
44. C
45. A
46. B
47. A
48. C
49. C
50. A
12.03: Unit 3 (Lessons 7-8)
1. A
2. C
3. A
4. B
5. B
6. B
7. A
8. A
9. A
10. A
11. C
12. C
13. B
14. A
15. B
12.04: Unit 4 (Lessons 9-11)
1. C
2. A
3. B
4. C
5. C
6. D
7. D
8. A
9. B
10. C
11. B
12. D
13. B
14. C
15. A
16. B
17. B
18. D
19. D
20. A
21. C
22. D
23. B
24. C
25. B
26. C
27. B
28. B
29. B
30. D
31. C
32. A
33. C
34. C
35. B
36. C
37. B
38. C
39. C
40. D
41. B
42. B
43. D
44. A
45. D
46. A
47. C
48. D
49. C
50. A | textbooks/socialsci/Human_Development/11%3A_Death_and_Dying/11.12%3A_Unit_4_Exam.txt |
Since its founding, the United States has relied on citizen participation to govern at the local, state, and national levels. This civic engagement ensures that representative democracy will continue to flourish and that people will continue to influence government. The right of citizens to participate in government is an important feature of democracy, and over the centuries many have fought to acquire and defend this right. During the American Revolution (1775–1783), British colonists fought for the right to govern themselves. In the early nineteenth century, agitated citizens called for the removal of property requirements for voting so poor white men could participate in government just as wealthy men could. Throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, women, African Americans, Native Americans, and many other groups fought for the right to vote and hold office.
The poster shown above (Figure 1.1), created during World War II, depicts voting as an important part of the fight to keep the United States free. The purpose of voting and other forms of political engagement is to ensure that government serves the people, and not the other way around. But what does government do to serve the people? What different forms of government exist? How do they differ? How can citizens best engage with and participate in the crucial process of governing the nation? This chapter seeks to answer these questions.
1.02: What is Government
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Explain what government is and what it does
• Identify the type of government in the United States and compare it to other forms of government
Government affects all aspects of people’s lives. What we eat, where we go to school, what kind of education we receive, how our tax money is spent, and what we do in our free time are all affected by government. Americans are often unaware of the pervasiveness of government in their everyday lives, and many are unsure precisely what it does. Here we will look at what government is, what it does, and how the government of the United States differs from other kinds of governments.
Defining Government
The term government describes the means by which a society organizes itself and allocates authority in order to accomplish collective goals and provide benefits that the society as a whole needs. Among the goals that governments around the world seek to accomplish are economic prosperity for the nation, secure national borders, and the safety and well-being of citizens. Governments also provide benefits for their citizens. The type of benefits provided differ according to the country and their specific type of governmental system, but governments commonly provide such things as education, health care, and an infrastructure for transportation. The term politics refers to the process of gaining and exercising control within a government for the purpose of setting and achieving particular goals, especially those related to the division of resources within a nation.
Sometimes governmental systems are confused with economic systems. This is because certain types of political thought or governmental organization are closely related to or develop with certain types of economic systems. For example, the economic system of capitalism in Western Europe and North America developed at roughly the same time as ideas about democratic republics, self-government, and natural rights. At this time, the idea of liberty became an important concept. According to John Locke, an English political philosopher of the seventeenth century, all people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property. From this came the idea that people should be free to consent to being governed. In the eighteenth century, in Great Britain’s North American colonies, and later in France, this developed into the idea that people should govern themselves through elected representatives and not a king; only those representatives chosen by the people had the right to make laws to govern them.
Similarly, Adam Smith, a Scottish philosopher who was born nineteen years after Locke’s death, believed that all people should be free to acquire property in any way that they wished. Instead of being controlled by government, business, and industry, Smith argued, people should be allowed to operate as they wish and keep the proceeds of their work. Competition would ensure that prices remained low and faulty goods disappeared from the market. In this way, businesses would reap profits, consumers would have their needs satisfied, and society as a whole would prosper. Smith discussed these ideas, which formed the basis for industrial capitalism, in his book The Wealth of Nations, which was published in 1776, the same year that the Declaration of Independence was written.
Representative government and capitalism developed together in the United States, and many Americans tend to equate democracy, a political system in which people govern themselves, with capitalism. In theory, a democratic government promotes individualism and the freedom to act as one chooses instead of being controlled, for good or bad, by government. Capitalism, in turn, relies on individualism. At the same time, successful capitalists prefer political systems over which they can exert at least some influence in order to maintain their liberty.
Democracy and capitalism do not have to go hand in hand, however. Indeed, one might argue that a capitalist economic system might be bad for democracy in some respects. Although Smith theorized that capitalism would lead to prosperity for all, this has not necessarily been the case. Great gaps in wealth between the owners of major businesses, industries, and financial institutions and those who work for others in exchange for wages exist in many capitalist nations. In turn, great wealth may give a very small minority great influence over the government—a greater influence than that held by the majority of the population, which will be discussed later.
Socialism is an alternative economic system. In socialist societies, the means of generating wealth, such as factories, large farms, and banks, are owned by the government and not by private individuals. The government accumulates wealth and then redistributes it to citizens, primarily in the form of social programs that provide such things as free or inexpensive health care, education, and childcare. In socialist countries, the government also usually owns and controls utilities such as electricity, transportation systems like airlines and railroads, and telecommunications systems. In many socialist countries the government is an oligarchy: only members of a certain political party or ruling elite can participate in government. For example, in China, the government is run by members of the Chinese Communist Party. However, socialist countries can have democratic forms of government as well, such as Sweden. Although many Americans associate socialism with tyranny and a loss of individual liberties, this does not have to be the case, as we see in Sweden.
In the United States, the democratic government works closely together with its capitalist economic system. The interconnectedness of the two affects the way in which goods and services are distributed. The market provides many goods and services needed by Americans. For example, food, clothing, and housing are provided in ample supply by private businesses that earn a profit in return. These goods and services are known as private goods.1 People can purchase what they need in the quantity in which they need it. This, of course, is the ideal. In reality, those who live in poverty cannot always afford to buy ample food and clothing to meet their needs, or the food and clothing that they can afford to buy in abundance is of inferior quality. Also, it is often difficult to find adequate housing; housing in the most desirable neighborhoods—those that have low crime rates and good schools—is often too expensive for poor or working-class (and sometimes middle-class) people to buy or rent.
Thus, the market cannot provide everything (in enough quantity or at low enough costs) in order to meet everyone’s needs. Therefore, some goods are provided by the government. Such goods or services that are available to all without charge are called public goods. Two such public goods are national security and education. It is difficult to see how a private business could protect the United States from attack. How could it build its own armies and create plans for defense and attack? Who would pay the men and women who served? Where would the intelligence come from? Due to its ability to tax, draw upon the resources of an entire nation, and compel citizen compliance, only government is capable of protecting the nation.
Similarly, public schools provide education for all children in the United States. Children of all religions, races and ethnicities, socioeconomic classes, and levels of academic ability can attend public schools free of charge from kindergarten through the twelfth grade. It would be impossible for private schools to provide an education for all of the nation’s children. Private schools do provide some education in the United States; however, they charge tuition, and only those parents who can afford to pay their fees (or whose children gain a scholarship) can attend these institutions. Some schools charge very high tuition, the equivalent to the tuition at a private college. If private schools were the only educational institutions, most poor and working-class children and many middle-class children would be uneducated. Private schooling is a type of good called a toll good. Toll goods are available to many people, and many people can make use of them, but only if they can pay the price. They occupy a middle ground between public and private goods. All parents may send their children to public schools in the United States. They can choose to send their children to a private school, but the private school will charge them. On the other hand, public schools, which are operated by the government, provide free education so all children can attend school. Therefore, everyone in the nation benefits from the educated voters and workers produced by the public school system. Another distinction between public and private goods is that public goods are available to all, typically without additional charge.
What other public goods does government provide in the United States? At the federal, state, and local level, government provides stability and security, not only in the form of a military but also in the form of police and fire departments. Government provides other valuable goods and services such as public education, public transportation, mail service, and food, housing, and health care for the poor (Figure 1.2). If a house catches on fire, the fire department does not demand payment before they put the fire out. If someone breaks into a house and tries to harm the occupants, the police will try to protect them and arrest the intruder, but the police department will not request payment for services rendered. The provision of these goods and services is funded by citizens paying into the general tax base.
Government also performs the important job of protecting common goods: goods that all people may use free of charge but that are of limited supply, such as fish in the sea or clean drinking water. Because everyone can use these goods, they must be protected so a few people do not take everything that is available and leave others with nothing. Some examples of common goods, private goods, public goods, and toll goods are listed below (Figure 1.3).
Link to Learning
This federal website shares information about the many services the government provides.
Finding a Middle Ground
Fishing Regulations
One of the many important things government does is regulate public access to common goodslike natural resources. Unlike public goods, which all people may use without charge, common goods are in limited supply. If more public schools are needed, the government can build more. If more firefighters or mail carriers are needed, the government can hire them. Public lands and wildlife, however, are not goods the government can simply multiply if supply falls due to demand. Indeed, if some people take too freely from the supply of common goods, there will not be enough left for others to use.
Fish are one of the many common goods in which the government currently regulates access. It does so to ensure that certain species are not fished into extinction, thus depriving future generations of an important food source and a means to make a living. This idea is known as sustainability. Environmentalists want to set strict fishing limits on a variety of species. Commercial fishers resist these limits, claiming they are unnecessary and, if enforced, would drive them out of business (Figure 1.4). Currently, fishing limits are set by a combination of scientists, politicians, local resource managers, and groups representing the interests of fishers.3
Should the government regulate fishing? Is it right to interfere with people’s ability to earn money today in order to protect the access of future generations to the nation’s common goods?
Besides providing stability and goods and services for all, government also creates a structure by which goods and services can be made available to the people. In the United States, people elect representatives to city councils, state legislatures, and Congress. These bodies make laws to govern their respective jurisdictions. They also pass measures to raise money, through the imposition of taxes on such things as income, property, and sales. Local, state, and national governments also draft budgets to determine how the revenue taken in will be spent for services. On the local level, funds are allotted for education, police and fire departments, and maintenance of public parks. State governments allocate money for state colleges and universities, maintenance of state roads and bridges, and wildlife management, among other priorities. On the national level, money goes to such things as defense, Social Security, pensions for veterans, maintenance of federal courts and prisons, and management of national parks. At each level, representatives elected by the people try to secure funding for things that will benefit those who live in the areas they represent. Once money has been allocated, government agencies at each level then receive funds for the purposes mentioned above and use them to provide services to the public.
Local, state, and national governments also make laws to maintain order and to ensure the efficient functioning of society, including the fair operation of the business marketplace. In the United States, for example, Congress passes laws regulating banking, and government agencies regulate such things as the amount of toxic gases that can be emitted by factories, the purity of food offered for sale, and the safety of toys and automobiles. In this way, government checks the actions of business, something that it would not do if capitalism in the United States functioned strictly in the manner that Adam Smith believed it should…almost entirely unregulated.
Besides providing goods to citizens and maintaining public safety, most governments also provide a means for citizens to participate in government and to make their opinions known to those in power. Western democracies like the United States, Britain, France, and others protect citizens’ freedom of speech and the press. These nations, and others in the world, also allow citizens to vote.
As noted earlier, politics is the process by which choices are made regarding how resources will be allocated and which economic and social policies government will pursue. Put more simply, politics is the process of who gets what and how. Politics involves choosing which values government will support and which it will not. If government chooses to support an ideal such as individualism, it may choose to loosen regulations on business and industry or to cut taxes so that people have more money to invest in business. If it chooses to support an ideal such as egalitarianism, which calls for equal treatment for all and the destruction of socioeconomic inequalities, it may raise taxes in order to be able to spend more on public education, public transportation, housing for the poor, and care for the elderly. If, for example, the government is more concerned with national security than with individual liberty, it may authorize the tapping of people’s phones and restrict what newspapers may publish. If liberty is more important, then government will place greater restrictions on the extent that law enforcement agencies can intrude upon citizens’ private communications. The political process and the input of citizens help determine the answer.
Civic engagement, or the participation that connects citizens to government, is a vital ingredient of politics. In the United States, citizens play an important role in influencing what policies are pursued, what values the government chooses to support, what initiatives are granted funding, and who gets to make the final decisions. Political engagement can take many forms: reading about politics, listening to news reports, discussing politics, attending (or watching televised) political debates, donating money to political campaigns, handing out flyers promoting a candidate, voting, joining protest marches, and writing letters to their elected representatives.
Different Types of Government
The government of the United States can best be described as a republic, or representative democracy. A democracy is a government in which political power—influence over institutions, leaders, and policies—rests in the hands of the people. In a representative democracy, however, the citizens do not govern directly. Instead, they elect representatives to make decisions and pass laws on behalf of all the people. Thus, U.S. citizens vote for members of Congress, the president and vice president, members of state legislatures, governors, mayors, and members of town councils and school boards to act on their behalf. Most representative governments favor majority rule: the opinions of the majority of the people have more influence with government than those of the minority. If the number of elected representatives who favor a proposed law is greater than those who oppose it, the law will be enacted.
However, in representative governments like the United States, minority rights are protected: people cannot be deprived of certain rights even if an overwhelming number of people think that they should be. For example, let’s say American society decided that atheists, people who do not believe that God exists, were evil and should be imprisoned or expelled from the country. Even though atheists only account for about 7 percent of the population, they would be protected due to minority rights.4 Even though the number of Americans who believe in God far outweighs the number who do not, the minority is still protected. Because decisions are made through majority rule, making your opinions known and voting for those men and women who make decisions that affect all of us are critical and influential forms of civic engagement in a representative democracy such as the United States.
In a direct democracy, unlike representative democracy, people participate directly in making government decisions. For example, in ancient Athens, the most famous example of a direct democracy, all male citizens were allowed to attend meetings of the Assembly. Here they debated and voted for or against all proposed laws. Although neither the federal government nor any of the state governments function as a direct democracy—the Constitution requires the national and state governments to be representative forms of government—some elements of direct democracy do exist in the United States. While residents of the different states vote for people to represent them and to make laws in their behalf in the state legislatures and in Congress, people may still directly vote on certain issues. For example, a referendum or proposed law might be placed on the ballot for citizens to vote on directly during state or local elections instead of leaving the matter in the hands of the state legislature. At New England town meetings, all residents are allowed to debate decisions affecting the town (Figure 1.5). Such occasions provide additional opportunities for civic engagement.
Most countries now have some form of representative government.5 At the other end of the political spectrum are elite-driven forms of government. In a monarchy, one ruler, usually a hereditary ruler, holds political power. Although the power of some monarchs is limited by law, and such kings and queens often rule along with an elected legislature that makes laws for the country, this is not always the case. Many southwest Asian kingdoms, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, have absolute monarchs whose power is unrestricted. As discussed earlier, another nondemocratic form of government is oligarchy, in which a handful of elite members of society, often those who belong to a particular political party, hold all political power. For example, in Cuba, as in China, only members of the Communist Party are allowed to vote or hold public office, and the party’s most important members make all government decisions. Some nondemocratic societies are totalitarian in nature. Under totalitarianism, the government is more important than the citizens, and it controls all aspects of citizens’ lives. Citizens’ rights are limited, and the government does not allow political criticism or opposition. These forms of government are fairly rare. North Korea is an example of a totalitarian government.
Link to Learning
The CIA website provides information about the types of government across the world. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/01%3A_American_Government_and_Civic_Engagement/1.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Describe the pluralism-elitism debate
• Explain the tradeoffs perspective on government
The United States allows its citizens to participate in government in many ways. The United States also has many different levels and branches of government that any citizen or group might approach. Many people take this as evidence that U.S. citizens, especially as represented by competing groups, are able to influence government actions. Some political theorists, however, argue that this is not the case. They claim that only a handful of economic and political elites have any influence over government.
Elitism vs. Plularism
Many Americans fear that a set of elite citizens is really in charge of government in the United States and that others have no influence. This belief is called the elite theory of government. In contrast to that perspective is the pluralist theory of government, which says that political power rests with competing interest groups who share influence in government. Pluralist theorists assume that citizens who want to get involved in the system do so because of the great number of access points to government. That is, the U.S. system, with several levels and branches, has many places where people and groups can engage the government.
The foremost supporter of elite theory was C. Wright Mills. In his book, The Power Elite, Mills argued that government was controlled by a combination of business, military, and political elites.6 Most are highly educated, often graduating from prestigious universities (Figure 1.6). According to elite theory, the wealthy use their power to control the nation’s economy in such a way that those below them cannot advance economically. Their wealth allows the elite to secure for themselves important positions in politics. They then use this power to make decisions and allocate resources in ways that benefit them. Politicians do the bidding of the wealthy instead of attending to the needs of ordinary people, and order is maintained by force. Indeed, those who favor government by the elite believe the elite are better fit to govern and that average citizens are content to allow them to do so.7
In apparent support of the elite perspective, one-third of U.S. presidents have attended Ivy League schools, a much higher percentage than the rest of the U.S. population.8 Among members of the House of Representatives, 95 percent have a bachelor’s degree, as do 100 percent of members of the Senate.9 Fewer than 40 percent of U.S. adults have even an associate’s degree.10 The majority of the men and women in Congress also engaged in either state or local politics, were business people, or practiced law before being elected to Congress.11 Approximately 73 percent of members of Congress are men, and about 76 percent are White.12 The nation’s laws are made primarily by well-educated White male professionals and businessmen.
The makeup of Congress is important because race, gender, profession, education, and socioeconomic status have an important effect on people’s political interests. For example, changes in the way taxes are levied and spent do not affect all citizens equally. A flat tax, which generally requires that everyone pay the same percentage rate, hurts the poor more than it does the rich. If the income tax rate was flat at 10 percent, all Americans would have to pay 10 percent of their income to the federal government. Someone who made \$40,000 a year would have to pay \$4,000 and be left with only \$36,000 to live on. Someone who made \$1,000,000 would have to pay \$100,000, a greater sum, but they would still be left with \$900,000. People who were not wealthy would probably pay more than they could comfortably afford, while the wealthy, who could afford to pay more and still live well, would not see a real impact on their daily lives. Similarly, the allocation of revenue affects the rich and the poor differently. Giving more money to public education does not benefit the wealthy as much as it does the poor, because the wealthy are more likely than the poor to send their children to private schools or to at least have the option of doing so. However, better funded public schools have the potential to greatly improve the upward mobility of members of other socioeconomic classes who have no other option than to send their children to public schools.
Currently, about half of the members of Congress are millionaires.13 As of 2009, approximately 38 percent of Congress sent their children to private schools. Overall, only 11 percent of the American population did so.14 Therefore, a Congress dominated by millionaires who send their children to private schools is more likely to believe that a flat tax is fair and that increased funding for public education is not a necessity. Their experience, however, does not reflect the experience of average Americans.
Pluralist theory rejects this approach, arguing that although there are elite members of society they do not control government. Instead, pluralists argue, political power is distributed throughout society. Rather than resting in the hands of individuals, a variety of organized groups hold power, with some groups having more influence on certain issues than others. Thousands of interest groups exist in the United States.15 Approximately 70–90 percent of Americans report belonging to at least one group.16
According to pluralist theory, people with shared interests will form groups in order to make their desires known to politicians. These groups include such entities as environmental advocates, unions, and organizations that represent the interests of various businesses. Because most people lack the inclination, time, or expertise necessary to decide political issues, these groups will speak for them. As groups compete with one another and find themselves in conflict regarding important issues, government policy begins to take shape. In this way, government policy is shaped from the bottom up and not from the top down, as we see in elitist theory. Robert Dahl, author of Who Governs?, was one of the first to advance the pluralist theory, and argued that politicians seeking an “electoral payoff” are attentive to the concerns of politically active citizens and, through them, become acquainted with the needs of ordinary people. They will attempt to give people what they want in exchange for their votes.17
Link to Learning
The Center for Responsive Politics is a non-partisan research group that provides data on who gives to whom in elections. Visit OpenSecrets.org: Center for Responsive Politics to track campaign contributions, congressional bills and committees, and interest groups and lobbyists.
The Tradeoffs Perspective
Although elitists and pluralists present political influence as a tug-of-war with people at opposite ends of a rope trying to gain control of government, in reality government action and public policy are influenced by an ongoing series of tradeoffs or compromises. For instance, an action that will meet the needs of large numbers of people may not be favored by the elite members of society. Giving the elite what they want may interfere with plans to help the poor. As pluralists argue, public policy is created as a result of competition among groups. In the end, the interests of both the elite and the people likely influence government action, and compromises will often attempt to please them both.
Since the framing of the U.S. Constitution, tradeoffs have been made between those who favor the supremacy of the central government and those who believe that state governments should be more powerful. Should state governments be able to respond to the desires of citizen groups by legalizing the use of marijuana? Should the national government be able to close businesses that sell marijuana even in states where it is legal? Should those who control the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Security Agency (NSA) be allowed to eavesdrop on phone conversations of Americans and read their email? Should groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which protect all citizens’ rights to freedom of speech, be able to prevent this?
Many of the tradeoffs made by government are about freedom of speech. The First Amendment of the Constitution gives Americans the right to express their opinions on matters of concern to them; the federal government cannot interfere with this right. Because of the Fourteenth Amendment, state governments must protect this right also. At the same time, neither the federal government nor state governments can allow someone’s right to free expression to interfere with someone else’s ability to exercise his or her own rights. For example, in the United States, it is legal for women to have abortions. Many people oppose this right, primarily for religious reasons, and often protest outside facilities that provide abortions. In 2007, the state of Massachusetts enacted a law that required protestors to stand thirty-five feet away from clinic entrances. The intention was to prevent women seeking abortions from being harassed or threatened with violence. Groups favoring the protection of women’s reproductive rights supported the law. Groups opposed to abortion argued that the buffer zone prevented them from speaking to women to try to persuade them not to have the procedure done. In 2014, in the case of McCullen v. Coakley, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law that created a buffer zone between protestors and clinic entrances.18 The federal government does not always side with those who oppose abortion, however. Several states have attempted to pass laws requiring women to notify their husbands, and often obtain their consent, before having an abortion. All such laws have been found unconstitutional by the courts.
Tradeoffs also occur as a result of conflict between groups representing the competing interests of citizens. Many Americans believe that the U.S. must become less dependent on foreign sources of energy. Many also would like people to have access to inexpensive sources of energy. Such people are likely to support fracking: the process of hydraulic fracturing that gives drilling companies access to natural gas trapped between layers of shale underground. Fracking produces abundant, inexpensive natural gas, a great benefit to people who live in parts of the country where it is expensive to heat homes during the winter. Fracking also creates jobs. At the same time, many scholars argue that fracking can result in the contamination of drinking water, air pollution, and increased risk of earthquakes. One study has even linked fracking to cancer. Thus, those who want to provide jobs and inexpensive natural gas are in conflict with those who wish to protect the natural environment and human health (Figure 1.7). Both sides are well intentioned, but they disagree over what is best for people.19
Tradeoffs are especially common in the United States Congress. Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives usually vote according to the concerns of people who live in their districts. Not only does this often pit the interests of people in different parts of the country against one another, but it also frequently favors the interests of certain groups of people over the interests of others within the same state. For example, allowing oil companies to drill off the state’s coast may please those who need the jobs that will be created, but it will anger those who wish to preserve coastal lands as a refuge for wildlife and, in the event of an accident, may harm the interests of people who depend on fishing and tourism for their living. At times, House members and senators in Congress may ignore the voters in their home states and the groups that represent them in order to follow the dictates of the leaders of the political party to which they belong. For example, a member of Congress from a state with a large elderly population may be inclined to vote in favor of legislation to increase benefits for retired people; however, his or her political party leaders, who disapprove of government spending on social programs, may ask for a vote against it. The opposite can occur as well, especially in the case of a legislator soon facing re-election. With two-year terms of office, we are more likely to see House members buck their party in favor of their constituents.
Finally, the government may attempt to resolve conflicting concerns within the nation as a whole through tradeoffs. After repeated incidents of mass shootings at schools, theaters, churches, and shopping malls, many are concerned with protecting themselves and their families from firearm violence. Some groups would like to ban the sale of automatic weapons completely. Some do not want to ban gun ownership; they merely want greater restrictions to be put in place on who can buy guns or how long people must wait between the time they enter the store to make a purchase and the time when they are actually given possession of the weapon. Others represent the interests of those who oppose any restrictions on the number or type of weapons Americans may own. So far, state governments have attempted to balance the interests of both groups by placing restrictions on such things as who can sell guns, where gun sales may take place, or requirements for background checks, but they have not attempted to ban gun sales altogether. For example, although federal law does not require private gun dealers (people who sell guns but do not derive most of their income from doing so) to conduct background checks before selling firearms to people at gun shows, some states have passed laws requiring this.20
At the federal level, there has been widespread support in Congress to improve the background checking process. Indeed, despite objections from the National Rifle Association, the Fix-NICS Act passed the House and Senate and was signed into law by President Trump as part of an omnibus spending bill in March 2018.21 And, in the wake of mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder, at the time of this writing, there are two House-passed bills under consideration in the U.S. Senate.22 | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/01%3A_American_Government_and_Civic_Engagement/1.03%3A_Who_Governs_Elitism_Pluralism_and_Tradeoffs.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Explain the importance of citizen engagement in a democracy
• Describe the main ways Americans can influence and become engaged in government
• Discuss factors that may affect people’s willingness to become engaged in government
Participation in government matters. Although people may not get all that they want, they can achieve many goals and improve their lives through civic engagement. According to the pluralist theory, government cannot function without active participation by at least some citizens. Even if we believe the elite make political decisions, participation in government through the act of voting can change who the members of the elite are.
Why Get Involved?
Are fewer people today active in politics than in the past? Political scientist Robert Putnam has argued that civic engagement is declining; although many Americans may report belonging to groups, these groups are usually large, impersonal ones with thousands of members. People who join groups such as Amnesty International or Greenpeace may share certain values and ideals with other members of the group, but they do not actually interact with these other members. These organizations are different from the types of groups Americans used to belong to, like church groups or bowling leagues. Although people are still interested in volunteering and working for the public good, they are more interested in either working individually or joining large organizations where they have little opportunity to interact with others. Putnam considers a number of explanations for this decline in small group membership, including increased participation by women in the workforce, a decrease in the number of marriages and an increase in divorces, and the effect of technological developments, such as the internet, that separate people by allowing them to feel connected to others without having to spend time in their presence.23
Putnam argues that a decline in social capital—“the collective value of all ‘social networks’ [those whom people know] and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other”—accompanies this decline in membership in small, interactive groups.24 Included in social capital are such things as networks of individuals, a sense that one is part of an entity larger than oneself, concern for the collective good and a willingness to help others, and the ability to trust others and to work with them to find solutions to problems. This, in turn, has hurt people’s willingness and ability to engage in representative government. If Putnam is correct, this trend is unfortunate, because becoming active in government and community organizations is important for many reasons.
Some have countered Putnam’s thesis and argue that participation is in better shape than what he portrays. Everett Ladd shows many positive trends in social involvement in American communities that serve to soften some of the declines identified by Putnam. For example, while bowling league participation is down, soccer league participation has proliferated.25 April Clark examines and analyzes a wide variety of social capital data trends and disputes the original thesis of erosion.26 Others have suggested that technology has increased connectedness, an idea that Putnam himself has critiqued as not as deep as in-person connections.27
Link to Learning
To learn more about political engagement in the United States, read “The Current State of Civic Engagement in America” by the Pew Research Center.
Civic engagement can increase the power of ordinary people to influence government actions. Even those without money or connections to important people can influence the policies that affect their lives and change the direction taken by government. U.S. history is filled with examples of people actively challenging the power of elites, gaining rights for themselves, and protecting their interests. For example, slavery was once legal in the United States and large sectors of the U.S. economy were dependent on this forced labor. Slavery was outlawed and blacks were granted citizenship because of the actions of abolitionists. Although some abolitionists were wealthy white men, most were ordinary people, including men and women of both races. White women and blacks were able to actively assist in the campaign to end slavery despite the fact that, with few exceptions, they were unable to vote. Similarly, the right to vote once belonged solely to white men until the Fifteenth Amendment gave the vote to African American men. The Nineteenth Amendment extended the vote to include women, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 made exercising the right to vote a reality for African American men and women in the South. None of this would have happened, however, without the efforts of people who marched in protest, participated in boycotts, delivered speeches, wrote letters to politicians, and sometimes risked arrest in order to be heard (Figure 1.8). The tactics used to influence the government and effect change by abolitionists and members of the women’s rights and African American civil rights movements are still used by many activists today.
The rights gained by these activists and others have dramatically improved the quality of life for many in the United States. Civil rights legislation did not focus solely on the right to vote or to hold public office; it also integrated schools and public accommodations, prohibited discrimination in housing and employment, and increased access to higher education. Activists for women’s rights fought for, and won, greater reproductive freedom for women, better wages, and access to credit. Only a few decades ago, homosexuality was considered a mental disorder, and intercourse between consenting adults of the same sex was illegal in many states. Although legal discrimination against gays and lesbians still remains, consensual intercourse between homosexual adults is no longer illegal anywhere in the United States, and same-sex couples have the right to legally marry.
Activism can improve people’s lives in less dramatic ways as well. Working to make cities clean up vacant lots, destroy or rehabilitate abandoned buildings, build more parks and playgrounds, pass ordinances requiring people to curb their dogs, and ban late-night noise greatly affects people’s quality of life. The actions of individual Americans can make their own lives better and improve their neighbors’ lives as well.
Representative democracy cannot work effectively without the participation of informed citizens, however. Engaged citizens familiarize themselves with the most important issues confronting the country and with the plans different candidates have for dealing with those issues. Then they vote for the candidates they believe will be best suited to the job, and they may join others to raise funds or campaign for those they support. They inform their representatives how they feel about important issues. Through these efforts and others, engaged citizens let their representatives know what they want and thus influence policy. Only then can government actions accurately reflect the interests and concerns of the majority. Even people who believe the elite rule government should recognize that it is easier for them to do so if ordinary people make no effort to participate in public life.
Pathways to Engagement
People can become civically engaged in many ways, either as individuals or as members of groups. Some forms of individual engagement require very little effort. One of the simplest ways is to stay informed about debates and events in the community, in the state, and in the nation. Awareness is the first step toward engagement. News is available from a variety of reputable sources, such as newspapers like the New York Times; national news shows, including those offered by the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio; and reputable internet sites.
Link to Learning
Visit Avaaz and Change.org for more information on current political issues.
Another form of individual engagement is to write or email political representatives. Filing a complaint with the city council is another avenue of engagement. City officials cannot fix problems if they do not know anything is wrong to begin with. Responding to public opinion polls, actively contributing to a political blog, or starting a new blog are all examples of different ways to be involved.
One of the most basic ways to engage with government as an individual is to vote (Figure 1.9). Individual votes do matter. City council members, mayors, state legislators, governors, and members of Congress are all chosen by popular vote. Although the president of the United States is not chosen directly by popular vote but by a group called the Electoral College, the votes of individuals in their home states determine how the Electoral College ultimately votes. Registering to vote beforehand is necessary in most states, but it is usually a simple process, and many states allow registration online. (We discuss voter registration and voter turnout in more depth in a later chapter.)
Voting, however, is not the only form of political engagement in which people may participate. Individuals can engage by attending political rallies, donating money to campaigns, and signing petitions. Starting a petition of one’s own is relatively easy, and some websites that encourage people to become involved in political activism provide petitions that can be circulated through email. Taking part in a poll or survey is another simple way to make your voice heard.
Milestone
Votes for Eighteen-Year-Olds
Young Americans are often reluctant to become involved in traditional forms of political activity. They may believe politicians are not interested in what they have to say, or they may feel their votes do not matter. However, this attitude has not always prevailed. Indeed, today’s college students can vote because of the activism of college students in the 1960s. Most states at that time required citizens to be twenty-one years of age before they could vote in national elections. This angered many young people, especially young men who could be drafted to fight the war in Vietnam. They argued that it was unfair to deny eighteen-year-olds the right to vote for the people who had the power to send them to war. As a result, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, which lowered the voting age in national elections to eighteen, was ratified by the states and went into effect in 1971.
Are you engaged in or at least informed about actions of the federal or local government? Are you registered to vote? How would you feel if you were not allowed to vote until age twenty-one?
Some people prefer to work with groups when participating in political activities or performing service to the community. Group activities can be as simple as hosting a book club or discussion group to talk about politics. Coffee Party USA provides an online forum for people from a variety of political perspectives to discuss issues that are of concern to them. People who wish to be more active often work for political campaigns. Engaging in fundraising efforts, handing out bumper stickers and campaign buttons, helping people register to vote, and driving voters to the polls on Election Day are all important activities that anyone can engage in. Individual citizens can also join interest groups that promote the causes they favor.
Get Connected!
Getting Involved
In many ways, the pluralists were right. There is plenty of room for average citizens to become active in government, whether it is through a city council subcommittee or another type of local organization. Civic organizations always need volunteers, sometimes for only a short while and sometimes for much longer.
For example, Common Cause is a non-partisan organization that seeks to hold government accountable for its actions. It calls for campaign finance reform and paper verification of votes registered on electronic voting machines. Voters would then receive proof that the machine recorded their actual vote. This would help to detect faulty machines that were inaccurately tabulating votes or election fraud. Therefore, one could be sure that election results were reliable and that the winning candidate had in fact received the votes counted in their favor. Common Cause has also advocated that the Electoral College be done away with and that presidential elections be decided solely on the basis of the popular vote.
Follow-up activity: Choose one of the following websites to connect with organizations and interest groups in need of help:
Political activity is not the only form of engagement, and many people today seek other opportunities to become involved. This is particularly true of young Americans. Although young people today often shy away from participating in traditional political activities, they do express deep concern for their communities and seek out volunteer opportunities.28 Although they may not realize it, becoming active in the community and engaging in a wide variety of community-based volunteer efforts are important forms of civic engagement and help government do its job. The demands on government are great, and funds do not always exist to enable it to undertake all the projects it may deem necessary. Even when there are sufficient funds, politicians have differing ideas regarding how much government should do and what areas it should be active in. Volunteers and community organizations help fill the gaps. Examples of community action include tending a community garden, building a house for Habitat for Humanity, cleaning up trash in a vacant lot, volunteering to deliver meals to the elderly, and tutoring children in after-school programs (Figure 1.10).
Some people prefer even more active and direct forms of engagement such as protest marches and demonstrations, including civil disobedience. Such tactics were used successfully in the African American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and remain effective today. Likewise, the sit-ins (and sleep-ins and pray-ins) staged by African American civil rightsactivists, which they employed successfully to desegregate lunch counters, motels, and churches, have been adopted today by movements such as Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street (Figure 1.11). Other tactics, such as boycotting businesses of whose policies the activists disapproved, are also still common. Along with boycotts, there are now “buycotts,” in which consumers purchase goods and services from companies that give extensively to charity, help the communities in which they are located, or take steps to protect the environment.
Link to Learning
Many ordinary people have become political activists. Read “19 Young Activists Changing America” to learn about people who are working to make people’s lives better.
Insider Perspective
Ritchie Torres
In 2013, at the age of twenty-five, Ritchie Torres became the youngest member of the New York City Council and the first gay council member to represent the Bronx (Figure 1.12). Torres became interested in social justice early in his life. He was raised in poverty in the Bronx by his mother and a stepfather who left the family when Torres was twelve. The mold in his family’s public housing apartment caused him to have asthma as a child, and he spent time in the hospital on more than one occasion because of it. His mother’s complaints to the New York City Housing Authority were largely ignored. In high school, Torres decided to become a lawyer, participated in mock trials, and met a young and aspiring local politician named James Vacca. After graduation, he volunteered to campaign for Vacca in his run for a seat on the City Council. After Vacca was elected, he hired Torres to serve as his housing director to reach out to the community on Vacca’s behalf. While doing so, Torres took pictures of the poor conditions in public housing and collected complaints from residents. In 2013, Torres ran for a seat on the City Council himself and won. In November 2020, Torres was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent New York's 15th congressional district. He and Mondaire Jones, who represents NY 17, are the first openly gay Black men elected to Congress. He remains committed to improving housing for the poor.29
Why don’t more young people run for local office as Torres did? What changes might they effect in their communities if they were elected to a government position?
Factors of Engagement
Many Americans engage in political activity on a regular basis. A survey conducted in 2008 revealed that approximately two-thirds of American adults had participated in some type of political action in the past year. These activities included largely non-personal activities that did not require a great deal of interaction with others, such as signing petitions, contacting elected representatives, or contributing money to campaigns. During the same period, approximately 30 percent of people attended a local government meeting or a political rally or event, while 16 percent worked or volunteered for a campaign.30
Americans aged 18–29 were less likely to become involved in traditional forms of political activity than older Americans. A 2018 poll of more than two thousand young adults by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics revealed that only 24 percent claimed to be politically engaged, and fewer than 35 percent said that they had voted in a primary. Only 9 percent said that they had gone to a political demonstration, rally, or march.31 However, in the 2018 midterm elections, an estimated 31 percent of Americans under thirty turned out to vote, the highest level of young adult engagement in decades.32 In 2020, Harvard's polling showed significant interest in the 2020 presidential campaign and intent to vote. Post-election analysis by Tuft University's Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE) showed a record youth turnout of 53 percent, which was greater even than the historic turnout in the 2008 contest. The young vote swung heavily toward Biden in swing states. And, yet, young voters again participated at lower rates than did other age groups.33
Why are younger Americans less likely to become involved in traditional political organizations? One answer may be that as American politics become more partisan in nature, young people turn away. Committed partisanship, which is the tendency to identify with and to support (often blindly) a particular political party, alienates some Americans who feel that elected representatives should vote in support of the nation’s best interests instead of voting in the way their party wishes them to. When elected officials ignore all factors other than their party’s position on a particular issue, some voters become disheartened while others may become polarized. However, a recent study reveals that it is a distrust of the opposing party and not an ideological commitment to their own party that is at the heart of most partisanship among voters.34
Young Americans are particularly likely to be put off by partisan politics. More Americans under the age of thirty now identify themselves as Independents instead of Democrats or Republicans (Figure 1.13). Instead of identifying with a particular political party, young Americans are increasingly concerned about specific issues, such as same-sex marriage.35 People whose votes are determined based on single issues are unlikely to vote according to party affiliation.
The other factor involved in low youth voter turnout in the past was that younger Americans did not feel that candidates generally tackle issues relevant to their lives. When younger voters cannot relate to the issues put forth in a campaign, such as entitlements for seniors, they lose interest. This dynamic changed somewhat in 2016 as Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders made college costs an issue, even promising free college tuition for undergraduates at public institutions. Senator Sanders enjoyed intense support on college campuses across the United States. After his nomination campaign failed, this young voter enthusiasm faded. Despite the fact that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton eventually took up the free tuition issue, young people did not flock to her as well as they had to Sanders. In the general election, won by Republican nominee Donald Trump, turnout was down and Clinton received a smaller proportion of the youth vote than President Obama had in 2012.36 In 2020, youth again felt connected with candidates, and that compelled participation throughout the election year. Sanders again galvanized interest, as did Biden and Harris during the general election phase. Student loan debt was a key campaign issue.
While some Americans disapprove of partisanship in general, others are put off by the ideology—established beliefs and ideals that help shape political policy—of one of the major parties. This is especially true among the young. While ideological polarization has occurred on both sides of the political spectrum, as some members of the Republican Party have become more ideologically conservative (e.g., opposing same-sex marriage, legalization of certain drugs, immigration reform, gun control, separation of church and state, and access to abortion), those young people who do identify with one of the major parties have in recent years tended to favor the Democratic Party.37 Of the Americans under age thirty who were surveyed by Harvard in 2015, more tended to hold a favorable opinion of Democrats in Congress than of Republicans, and in the 2020 election, 61 percent of younger voters voted for the Democratic ticket (Figure 1.13). Even those young Americans who identify themselves as Republicans are more liberal on certain issues, such as being supportive of same-sex marriage and immigration reform, than are older Republicans. The young Republicans also may be more willing to see similarities between themselves and Democrats.38 Once again, support for the views of a particular party does not necessarily mean that someone will vote for members of that party.
Other factors may keep even those college students who do wish to vote away from the polls. Because many young Americans attend colleges and universities outside of their home states, they may find it difficult to register to vote. In places where a state-issued ID is required, students may not have one or may be denied one if they cannot prove that they paid in-state tuition rates.39
The likelihood that people will become active in politics also depends not only on age but on such factors as wealth and education. In 2020, as was the case in past elections, the percentage of people who reported that they were regular voters grew as levels of income and education increased.40, 41 Political involvement also depends on how strongly people feel about current political issues. Unfortunately, public opinion polls, which politicians may rely on when formulating policy or deciding how to vote on issues, capture only people’s latent preferences or beliefs. Latent preferences are not deeply held and do not remain the same over time. They may not even represent a person’s true feelings, since they may be formed on the spot when someone is asked a question about which they have no real opinion. Indeed, voting itself may reflect merely a latent preference because even people who do not feel strongly about a particular political candidate or issue vote. On the other hand, intense preferences are based on strong feelings regarding an issue that someone adheres to over time. People with intense preferences tend to become more engaged in politics; they are more likely to donate time and money to campaigns or to attend political rallies. The more money that one has and the more highly educated one is, the more likely one will form intense preferences and take political action.42 | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/01%3A_American_Government_and_Civic_Engagement/1.04%3A_Engagement_in_a_Democracy.txt |
common goods
goods that all people may use but that are of limited supply
democracy
a form of government where political power rests in the hands of the people
direct democracy
a form of government where people participate directly in making government decisions instead of choosing representatives to do this for them
government
the means by which a society organizes itself and allocates authority in order to accomplish collective goals
majority rule
a fundamental principle of democracy; the majority should have the power to make decisions binding upon the whole
minority rights
protections for those who are not part of the majority
monarchy
a form of government where one ruler, usually a hereditary one, holds political power
oligarchy
a form of government where a handful of elite society members hold political power
political power
influence over a government’s institutions, leadership, or policies
politics
the process by which we decide how resources will be allocated and which policies government will pursue
private goods
goods provided by private businesses that can be used only by those who pay for them
public goods
goods provided by government that anyone can use and that are available to all without charge
representative democracy
a form of government where voters elect representatives to make decisions and pass laws on behalf of all the people instead of allowing people to vote directly on laws
toll good
a good that is available to many people but is used only by those who can pay the price to do so
totalitarianism
a form of government where government is all-powerful and citizens have no rights
1.06: Summary
What is Government?
Government provides stability to society, as well as many crucial services such as free public education, police and fire services, and mail delivery. It also regulates access to common goods, such as public land, for the benefit of all. Government creates a structure whereby people can make their needs and opinions known to public officials. This is one of the key factors that makes the United States a representative democracy. A country where people elect representatives to make political decisions for them depends on the ability and willingness of ordinary people to make their voices known, unlike an oligarchy dominated by only a small group of people.
Who Governs? Elitism, Pluralism, and Tradeoffs
Many question whether politicians are actually interested in the needs of average citizens and debate how much influence ordinary people have over what government does. Those who support the elite theory of government argue that a small, wealthy, powerful elite controls government and makes policy to benefit its members and perpetuate their power. Others favor the pluralist theory, which maintains that groups representing the people’s interests do attract the attention of politicians and can influence government policy. In reality, government policy usually is the result of a series of tradeoffs as groups and elites fight with one another for influence and politicians attempt to balance the demands of competing interests, including the interests of the constituents who elected them to office.
Engagement in a Democracy
Civic and political engagement allows politicians to know how the people feel. It also improves people’s lives and helps them to build connections with others. Individuals can educate themselves on important issues and events, write to their senator or representative, file a complaint at city hall, attend a political rally, or vote. People can also work in groups to campaign or raise funds for a candidate, volunteer in the community, or protest a social injustice or an unpopular government policy. Although wealthier, older, more highly educated citizens are the most likely to be engaged with their government, especially if they have intense preferences about an issue, younger, less wealthy people can do much to change their communities and their country. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/01%3A_American_Government_and_Civic_Engagement/1.05%3A_Key_Terms.txt |
1. What goods are available to all without direct payment?
1. private goods
2. public goods
3. common goods
4. toll goods
Answer
B
1. In which form of government does a small group of elite people hold political power?
1. direct democrac
2. monarchy
3. oligarchy
4. totalitarian
2. What is the difference between a representative democracy and a direct democracy?
Answer
In a representative democracy, people elect representatives to make political decisions and pass laws for them. In a direct democracy, people make all political decisions and pass laws themselves.
1. What does government do for people?
2. The elite theory of government maintains that ________.
1. special interest groups make government policy
2. politicians who have held office for a long time are favored by voters
3. poor people and people of color should not be allowed to vote
4. wealthy, politically powerful people control government, and government has no interest in meeting the needs of ordinary people
Answer
D
1. According to the pluralist theory of government, ________.
1. government does what the majority of voters want it to do
2. government policy is formed as a result of the competition between groups with different goals and interests
3. ordinary people acting on their own have a significant influence on government
4. wealthy people decide what government policy will be, and politicians have no interest in pleasing anyone else
2. Which of the following is a good example of a tradeoff?
1. The government pleases environmental activists by preserving public lands but also pleases ranchers by allowing them to rent public lands for grazing purposes.
2. The government pleases environmental activists by reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone National Park but angers ranchers by placing their cattle in danger.
3. The government pleases oil companies by allowing them to drill on lands set aside for conservation but allows environmental activist groups to protest the drilling operations.
4. Groups that represent a variety of conflicting interests are all allowed to protest outside Congress and the White House.
Answer
A
1. Supporting the actions of the Democratic Party simply because one identifies oneself as a member of that party is an example of ________.
1. partisanship
2. ideology
3. latent preference
4. social capital
2. When a person is asked a question about a political issue that person has little interest in and has not thought much about, the person’s answer will likely reflect ________.
1. ideology
2. partisanship
3. intense preferences
4. latent preferences
Answer
D
1. What kinds of people are most likely to become active in politics or community service?
2. What political activities can people engage in other than running for office?
Answer
People can pay attention to the news in order to be aware of the most important issues of the day. They can contribute money to a campaign or attend a rally in support of a political candidate whose views they favor. They can write letters to members of Congress and to state and local politicians. They can vote.
1.08: Critical Thinking Questions
1. Is citizen engagement necessary for a democracy to function? Explain.
2. Which is the more important reason for being engaged: to gain power or improve the quality of life? Why?
3. Are all Americans equally able to become engaged in government? What factors make it more possible for some people to become engaged than others? What could be done to change this?
4. Which pathways of engagement in U.S. government do you plan to follow? Why do you prefer these approaches?
5. Are there any redeeming qualities to elitism and any downsides to pluralism? Are there benefits to having elites rule? Are there problems with allowing interest groups to exercise influence over government? Explain.
1.09: Suggestions for Further Study
Books:
Dahl, Robert A. 1991. Democracy and Its Critics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Dahl, Robert A. 1961. Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Dolan, Julie, Melissa M. Deckman, and Michele L. Swers. 2015. Women and Politics: Paths to Power and Political Influence. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Mills, C. Wright. 1956. The Power Elite. New York: Oxford University Press.
Olson, Mancur. 1971. The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Putnam, Robert D. 2001. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Films:
1949. All the King’s Men.
1976. All the President’s Men.
1972. The Candidate.
2007. Charlie Wilson’s War.
2008. Frost/Nixon.
1933. Gabriel over the White House.
2008. Milk.
1939. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/01%3A_American_Government_and_Civic_Engagement/1.07%3A_Review_Questions.txt |
1. Paul A. Samuelson. 1954. “The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure,” Review of Economics and Statistics 36, No. 4: 387–389.
2. John L. Mikesell. 2014. Fiscal Administration: Analysis and Applications for the Public Sector, 9th ed. Boston: Wadsworth.
3. Juliet Elperin, “U.S. Tightens Fishing Policy, Setting 2012 Catch Limits for All Mandated Species,” Washington Post, 8 January 2012.
4. Michael Lipka. 5 November 2015. “7 Facts about Atheists,” http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank...bout-atheists/.
5. Within this this realm of representative governments, there exists considerable variance in how democratic the systems actually are. The following website contains such information: https://www.eiu.com/topic/democracy-index.
6. C. Wright Mills. 1956. The Power Elite. New York: Oxford University Press.
7. Jack L. Walker. 1966. “A Critique of the Elitist Theory of Democracy,” The American Political Science Review 60, No. 2: 295.
8. The Ivy League is technically an athletic conference in the Northeast comprised of sports teams from eight institutions of higher education—Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University—however, the term is also used to connote academic excellence or social elitism.
9. “Directory of Representatives.” U.S. House of Representatives. https://www.house.gov/representatives. “Senators of the 116th Congress.” United States Senate. https://www.senate.gov/general/conta...nators_cfm.cfm.
10. Kyla Calvert Mason. 22 April 2014. “Percentage of Americans with College Degrees Rises, Paying for Degrees Tops Financial Challenges,” http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/...al-challenges/.
11. Jennifer E. Manning. 24 November 2014. “Membership of the 113th Congress: A Profile.” Congressional Research Service, p. 3 (Table 2).
12. Drew Desilver. 18 December 2018. “A Record Number of Women Will be Serving in the New Congress.” FactTank. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank...n-in-congress/.
13. Karl Evers-Hillstrom, "Majority of lawmakers in 116th Congress are millionaires," 23 April 2020, https://www.opensecrets.org/news/202...-millionaires/.
14. Lindsey Burke. 20 April 2009. “How Members of the 111th Congress Practice Private School Choice.” The Heritage Foundation. https://www.heritage.org/education/r...-school-choice.
15. “The Non-Governmental Order: Will NGOs Democratise, or Merely Disrupt, Global Governance?” The Economist, 9 December 1999.
16. Ronald J. Hrebenar. 1997. Interest Group Politics in America, 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 14; Clive S. Thomas. 2004. Research Guide to U.S. and International Interest Groups. Westport, CT: Praeger, 106.
17. Dahl, Who Governs? 91–93.
18. McCullen v. Coakley, 573 U.S. 464 (2014); Melissa Jeltsen, “The Reality of Abortion Clinics without Buffer Zones,” The Huffington Post, 13 July 2014.
19. Gail Bambrick. 11 December 2012. “Fracking: Pro and Con,” https://now.tufts.edu/articles/fracking-pro-and-con.
20. “Gun Show Background Checks State Laws,” http://www.governing.com/gov-data/sa...-laws-map.html (February 18, 2016).
21. Russel Berman. 22 March 2018. "Congress's 'Baby Steps' on Guns." The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...-steps/556250/
22. "White House Weighs Executive Orders on Gun Control," New York Times, 24 March 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/24/u...ve-orders.html.
23. Robert D. Putnam. 2001. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 75.
24. Putnam, Robert D. 1995. “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital,” Journal of Democracy 6: 66–67, 69; “About Social Capital,” https://www.hks.harvard.edu/programs...social-capital (May 2, 2016).
25. Everett Ladd. The Ladd Report. http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/fir...dd-report.html
26. April Clark. "Rethinking the Decline in Social Capital." American Politics Research. April 29, 2014. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf...32673X14531071
27. Emily Badger. "The Terrible Loneliness of Growing Up Poor in Robert Putnam's America." The Washington Post. March 6, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.32998051b18a
28. Jared Keller. 4 May 2015. “Young Americans are Opting Out of Politics, but Not Because They’re Cynical,” http://www.psmag.com/politics-and-la...cally-inclined.
29. Winston Ross, “Ritchie Torres: Gay, Hispanic and Powerful,” Newsweek, 25 January 2015.
30. Pew Research Center. 26 April 2018. “Political Engagement, Knowledge, and the Midterms.” http://www.people-press.org/2018/04/...-the-midterms/.
31. Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics. 17 October 2018. Survey of Young Americans’ Attitudes toward Politics and Public Service. https://iop.harvard.edu/sites/defaul...l-toplines.pdf.
32. Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE). 7 November 2018. “Young People Dramatically Increase Their Turnout to 31%, Shape 2018 Midterm Elections.” CIRCLE. https://civicyouth.org/young-people-...erm-elections/.
33. Harvard Institute of Politics. "Survey of Young Americans' Attitudes toward Politics and Public Service 35th Edition: March 8–March 25, 2018." 2018; Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. "Election Week 2020: Young People Increase Turnout, Lead Biden to Victory." 25 November 2020. https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-rese...tion-week-2020.
34. Marc Hetherington and Thomas Rudolph, “Why Don’t Americans Trust the Government?” The Washington Post, 30 January 2014.
35. Keller, “Young Americans are Opting Out.”
36. Tami Luhby and Jennifer Agiesta. 8 November 2016. “Exit Polls: Clinton Fails to Energize African-Americans, Latinos and the Young, http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/08/politi...it-polls-2016/.
37. Harvard Institute of Politics, “No Front-Runner among Prospective Republican Candidates,” http://iop.harvard.edu/no-front-runn...cratic-primary (May 2, 2016).
38. Jocelyn Kiley and Michael Dimock. 25 September 2014. “The GOP’s Millennial Problem Runs Deep,” http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank...lem-runs-deep/.
39. “Keeping Students from the Polls,” New York Times, 26 December 2011.
40. 18 October 2006. “Who Votes, Who Doesn’t, and Why,” http://www.people-press.org/2006/10/...oesnt-and-why/.
41. "What Affects Voter Turnout Rates," Fair Vote, https://www.fairvote.org/what_affect..._turnout_rates (June 1, 2021).
42. Jonathan M. Ladd. 11 September 2015. “Don’t Worry about Special Interests,” https://www.vox.com/mischiefs-of-fac...cial-interests. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/01%3A_American_Government_and_Civic_Engagement/1.10%3A_References.txt |
The U.S. Constitution, see Figure 2.1, is one of the world’s most enduring symbols of democracy. It is also the oldest, and shortest, written constitutions of the modern era still in existence. Its writing was by no means inevitable, however. Indeed, in many ways the Constitution was not the beginning but rather the culmination of American (and British) political thought about government power as well as a blueprint for the future.
It is tempting to think of the framers of the Constitution as a group of like-minded men aligned in their lofty thinking regarding rights and freedoms. This assumption makes it hard to oppose constitutional principles in modern-day politics because people admire the longevity of the Constitution and like to consider its ideals above petty partisan politics. However, the Constitution was designed largely out of necessity following the failure of the first revolutionary government, and it featured a series of pragmatic compromises among its disparate stakeholders. It is therefore quite appropriate that more than 225 years later the U.S. government still requires compromise to function properly.
How did the Constitution come to be written? What compromises were needed to ensure the ratification that made it into law? This chapter addresses these questions and also describes why the Constitution remains a living, changing document.
2.02: The Pre-Revolutionary Period and the Roots of the American Political Tradition
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Identify the origins of the core values in American political thought, including ideas regarding representational government
• Summarize Great Britain’s actions leading to the American Revolution
American political ideas regarding liberty and self-government did not suddenly emerge full-blown at the moment the colonists declared their independence from Britain. The varied strands of what became the American republic had many roots, reaching far back in time and across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Indeed, it was not new ideas but old ones that led the colonists to revolt and form a new nation.
Political Thought in the American Colonies
The beliefs and attitudes that led to the call for independence had long been an important part of colonial life. Of all the political thinkers who influenced American beliefs about government, the most important is surely John Locke (Figure 2.2). The most significant contributions of Locke, a seventeenth-century English philosopher, were his ideas regarding the relationship between government and natural rights, which were believed to be God-given rights to life, liberty, and property.
Locke was not the first Englishman to suggest that people had rights. The British government had recognized its duty to protect the lives, liberties, and property of English citizens long before the settling of its North American colonies. In 1215, King John signed Magna Carta—a promise to his subjects that he and future monarchs would refrain from certain actions that harmed, or had the potential to harm, the people of England. Prominent in Magna Carta’s many provisions are protections for life, liberty, and property. For example, one of the document’s most famous clauses promises, “No freemen shall be taken, imprisoned . . . or in any way destroyed . . . except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” Although it took a long time for modern ideas regarding due process to form, this clause lays the foundation for the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. While Magna Carta was intended to grant protections only to the English barons who were in revolt against King John in 1215, by the time of the American Revolution, English subjects, both in England and in North America, had come to regard the document as a cornerstone of liberty for men of all stations—a right that had been recognized by King John I in 1215, but the people had actually possessed long before then.
The rights protected by Magna Carta had been granted by the king, and, in theory, a future king or queen could take them away. The natural rights Locke described, however, had been granted by God and thus could never be abolished by human beings, even royal ones, or by the institutions they created.
So committed were the British to the protection of these natural rights that when the royal Stuart dynasty began to intrude upon them in the seventeenth century, Parliament removed King James II, already disliked because he was Roman Catholic, in the Glorious Revolution and invited his Protestant daughter and her husband to rule the nation. Before offering the throne to William and Mary, however, Parliament passed the English Bill of Rights in 1689. A bill of rights is a list of the liberties and protections possessed by a nation’s citizens. The English Bill of Rights, heavily influenced by Locke’s ideas, enumerated the rights of English citizens and explicitly guaranteed rights to life, liberty, and property. This document would profoundly influence the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
American colonists also shared Locke’s concept of property rights. According to Locke, anyone who invested labor in the commons—the land, forests, water, animals, and other parts of nature that were free for the taking—might take as much of these as needed, by cutting trees, for example, or building a fence around a field. The only restriction was that no one could take so much that others were deprived of their right to take from the commons as well. In the colonists’ eyes, all free white males should have the right to acquire property, and once it had been acquired, government had the duty to protect it. (The rights of women remained greatly limited for many more years.)
Perhaps the most important of Locke’s ideas that influenced the British settlers of North America were those regarding the origins and purpose of government. Most Europeans of the time believed the institution of monarchy had been created by God, and kings and queens had been divinely appointed to rule. Locke, however, theorized that human beings, not God, had created government. People sacrificed a small portion of their freedom and consented to be ruled in exchange for the government’s protection of their lives, liberty, and property. Locke called this implicit agreement between a people and their government the social contract. Should government deprive people of their rights by abusing the power given to it, the contract was broken and the people were no longer bound by its terms. The people could thus withdraw their consent to obey and form another government for their protection.
The belief that government should not deprive people of their liberties and should be restricted in its power over citizens’ lives was an important factor in the controversial decision by the American colonies to declare independence from England in 1776. For Locke, withdrawing consent to be ruled by an established government and forming a new one meant replacing one monarch with another. For those colonists intent on rebelling, however, it meant establishing a new nation and creating a new government, one that would be greatly limited in the power it could exercise over the people.
The desire to limit the power of government is closely related to the belief that people should govern themselves. This core tenet of American political thought was rooted in a variety of traditions. First, the British government did allow for a degree of self-government. Laws were made by Parliament, and property-owning males were allowed to vote for representatives to Parliament. Thus, Americans were accustomed to the idea of representative government from the beginning. For instance, Virginia established its House of Burgesses in 1619. Upon their arrival in North America a year later, the English Separatists who settled the Plymouth Colony, commonly known as the Pilgrims, promptly authored the Mayflower Compact, an agreement to govern themselves according to the laws created by the male voters of the colony.1 By the eighteenth century, all the colonies had established legislatures to which men were elected to make the laws for their fellow colonists. When American colonists felt that this longstanding tradition of representative self-government was threatened by the actions of Parliament and the King, the American Revolution began.
The American Revolution
The American Revolution began when a small and vocal group of colonists became convinced the king and Parliament were abusing them and depriving them of their rights. By 1776, they had been living under the rule of the British government for more than a century, and England had long treated the thirteen colonies with a degree of benign neglect. Each colony had established its own legislature. Taxes imposed by England were low, and property ownership was more widespread than in England. People readily proclaimed their loyalty to the king. For the most part, American colonists were proud to be British citizens and had no desire to form an independent nation.
All this began to change in 1763 when the Seven Years War between Great Britain and France came to an end, and Great Britain gained control of most of the French territory in North America. The colonists had fought on behalf of Britain, and many colonists expected that after the war they would be allowed to settle on land west of the Appalachian Mountains that had been taken from France. However, their hopes were not realized. Hoping to prevent conflict with Indian tribes in the Ohio Valley, Parliament passed the Proclamation of 1763, which forbade the colonists to purchase land or settle west of the Appalachian Mountains.2
To pay its debts from the war and maintain the troops it left behind to protect the colonies, the British government had to take new measures to raise revenue. Among the acts passed by Parliament were laws requiring American colonists to pay British merchants with gold and silver instead of paper currency and a mandate that suspected smugglers be tried in vice-admiralty courts, without jury trials. What angered the colonists most of all, however, was the imposition of direct taxes: taxes imposed on individuals instead of on transactions.
Because the colonists had not consented to direct taxation, their primary objection was that it reduced their status as free men. The right of the people or their representatives to consent to taxation was enshrined in both Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights. Taxes were imposed by the House of Commons, one of the two houses of the British Parliament. The North American colonists, however, were not allowed to elect representatives to that body. In their eyes, taxation by representatives they had not voted for was a denial of their rights. Members of the House of Commons and people living in England had difficulty understanding this argument. All British subjects had to obey the laws passed by Parliament, including the requirement to pay taxes. Those who were not allowed to vote, such as women and blacks, were considered to have virtual representation in the British legislature; representatives elected by those who could vote made laws on behalf of those who could not. Many colonists, however, maintained that anything except direct representation was a violation of their rights as English subjects.
The first such tax to draw the ire of colonists was the Stamp Act, passed in 1765, which required that almost all paper goods, such as diplomas, land deeds, contracts, and newspapers, have revenue stamps placed on them. The outcry was so great that the new tax was quickly withdrawn, but its repeal was soon followed by a series of other tax acts, such as the Townshend Acts(1767), which imposed taxes on many everyday objects such as glass, tea, and paint.
The taxes imposed by the Townshend Acts were as poorly received by the colonists as the Stamp Act had been. The Massachusetts legislature sent a petition to the king asking for relief from the taxes and requested that other colonies join in a boycott of British manufactured goods. British officials threatened to suspend the legislatures of colonies that engaged in a boycott and, in response to a request for help from Boston’s customs collector, sent a warship to the city in 1768. A few months later, British troops arrived, and on the evening of March 5, 1770, an altercation erupted outside the customs house. Shots rang out as the soldiers fired into the crowd (Figure 2.3). Several people were hit; three died immediately. Britain had taxed the colonists without their consent. Now, British soldiers had taken colonists’ lives.
Following this event, later known as the Boston Massacre, resistance to British rule grew, especially in the colony of Massachusetts. In December 1773, a group of Boston men boarded a ship in Boston harbor and threw its cargo of tea, owned by the British East India Company, into the water to protest British policies, including the granting of a monopoly on tea to the British East India Company, which many colonial merchants resented.3 This act of defiance became known as the Boston Tea Party. Today, many who do not agree with the positions of the Democratic or the Republican Party have organized themselves into an oppositional group dubbed the Tea Party (Figure 2.4).
In the early months of 1774, Parliament responded to this latest act of colonial defiance by passing a series of laws called the Coercive Acts, intended to punish Boston for leading resistance to British rule and to restore order in the colonies. These acts virtually abolished town meetings in Massachusetts and otherwise interfered with the colony’s ability to govern itself. This assault on Massachusetts and its economy enraged people throughout the colonies, and delegates from all the colonies except Georgia formed the First Continental Congress to create a unified opposition to Great Britain. Among other things, members of the institution developed a declaration of rights and grievances.
In May 1775, delegates met again in the Second Continental Congress. By this time, war with Great Britain had already begun, following skirmishes between colonial militiamen and British troops at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. Congress drafted a Declaration of Causes explaining the colonies’ reasons for rebellion. On July 2, 1776, Congress declared American independence from Britain and two days later signed the Declaration of Independence.
Drafted by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence officially proclaimed the colonies’ separation from Britain. In it, Jefferson eloquently laid out the reasons for rebellion. God, he wrote, had given everyone the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. People had created governments to protect these rights and consented to be governed by them so long as government functioned as intended. However, “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” Britain had deprived the colonists of their rights. The king had “establish[ed] . . . an absolute Tyranny over these States.” Just as their English forebears had removed King James II from the throne in 1689, the colonists now wished to establish a new rule.
Jefferson then proceeded to list the many ways in which the British monarch had abused his power and failed in his duties to his subjects. The king, Jefferson charged, had taxed the colonists without the consent of their elected representatives, interfered with their trade, denied them the right to trial by jury, and deprived them of their right to self-government. Such intrusions on their rights could not be tolerated. With their signing of the Declaration of Independence (Figure 2.5), the founders of the United States committed themselves to the creation of a new kind of government.
Link to Learning
Thomas Jefferson explains in the Declaration of Independence why many colonists felt the need to form a new nation. His evocation of the natural rights of man and his list of grievances against the king also served as the model for the Declaration of Sentiments that was written in 1848 in favor of giving women in the United States rights equal to those of men. View both documents and compare. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/02%3A_The_Constitution_and_Its_Origins/2.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Describe the steps taken during and after the American Revolution to create a government
• Identify the main features of the Articles of Confederation
• Describe the crises resulting from key features of the Articles of Confederation
Waging a successful war against Great Britain required that the individual colonies, now sovereign states that often distrusted one another, form a unified nation with a central government capable of directing the country’s defense. Gaining recognition and aid from foreign nations would also be easier if the new United States had a national government able to borrow money and negotiate treaties. Accordingly, the Second Continental Congress called upon its delegates to create a new government strong enough to win the country’s independence but not so powerful that it would deprive people of the very liberties for which they were fighting.
Putting a New Government in Place
The final draft of the Articles of Confederation, which formed the basis of the new nation’s government, was accepted by Congress in November 1777 and submitted to the states for ratification. It would not become the law of the land until all thirteen states had approved it. Within two years, all except Maryland had done so. Maryland argued that all territory west of the Appalachians, to which some states had laid claim, should instead be held by the national government as public land for the benefit of all the states. When the last of these states, Virginia, relinquished its land claims in early 1781, Maryland approved the Articles.4 A few months later, the British surrendered.
Americans wished their new government to be a republic, a regime in which the people, not a monarch, held power and elected representatives to govern according to the rule of law. Many, however, feared that a nation as large as the United States could not be ruled effectively as a republic. Many also worried that even a government of representatives elected by the people might become too powerful and overbearing. Thus, a confederation was created—an entity in which independent, self-governing states form a union for the purpose of acting together in areas such as defense. Fearful of replacing one oppressive national government with another, however, the framers of the Articles of Confederation created an alliance of sovereign states held together by a weak central government.
Link to Learning
View the Articles of Confederation at the National Archives. The timeline for drafting and ratifying the Articles of Confederation is available at the Library of Congress.
Following the Declaration of Independence, each of the thirteen states had drafted and ratified a constitution providing for a republican form of government in which political power rested in the hands of the people, although the right to vote was limited to free (white) men, and the property requirements for voting differed among the states. Each state had a governor and an elected legislature. In the new nation, the states remained free to govern their residents as they wished. The central government had authority to act in only a few areas, such as national defense, in which the states were assumed to have a common interest (and would, indeed, have to supply militias). This arrangement was meant to prevent the national government from becoming too powerful or abusing the rights of individual citizens. In the careful balance between power for the national government and liberty for the states, the Articles of Confederation favored the states.
Thus, powers given to the central government were severely limited. The Confederation Congress, formerly the Continental Congress, had the authority to exchange ambassadors and make treaties with foreign governments and Indian tribes, declare war, coin currency and borrow money, and settle disputes between states. Each state legislature appointed delegates to the Congress; these men could be recalled at any time. Regardless of its size or the number of delegates it chose to send, each state would have only one vote. Delegates could serve for no more than three consecutive years, lest a class of elite professional politicians develop. The nation would have no independent chief executive or judiciary. Nine votes were required before the central government could act, and the Articles of Confederation could be changed only by unanimous approval of all thirteen states.
What Went Wrong with the Articles?
The Articles of Confederation satisfied the desire of those in the new nation who wanted a weak central government with limited power. Ironically, however, their very success led to their undoing. It soon became apparent that, while they protected the sovereignty of the states, the Articles had created a central government too weak to function effectively.
One of the biggest problems was that the national government had no power to impose taxes. To avoid any perception of “taxation without representation,” the Articles of Confederation allowed only state governments to levy taxes. To pay for its expenses, the national government had to request money from the states, which were required to provide funds in proportion to the value of the land within their borders. The states, however, were often negligent in this duty, and the national government was underfunded. Without money, it could not pay debts owed from the Revolution and had trouble conducting foreign affairs. For example, the inability of the U.S. government to raise sufficient funds to compensate colonists who had remained loyal to Great Britain for their property losses during and after the American Revolution was one of the reasons the British refused to evacuate the land west of the Appalachians. The new nation was also unable to protect American ships from attacks by the Barbary pirates.5 Foreign governments were also, understandably, reluctant to loan money to a nation that might never repay it because it lacked the ability to tax its citizens.
The fiscal problems of the central government meant that the currency it issued, called the Continental, was largely worthless and people were reluctant to use it. Furthermore, while the Articles of Confederation had given the national government the power to coin money, they had not prohibited the states from doing so as well. As a result, numerous state banks issued their own banknotes, which had the same problems as the Continental. People who were unfamiliar with the reputation of the banks that had issued the banknotes often refused to accept them as currency. This reluctance, together with the overwhelming debts of the states, crippled the young nation’s economy.
The country’s economic woes were made worse by the fact that the central government also lacked the power to impose tariffs on foreign imports or regulate interstate commerce. Thus, it was unable to prevent British merchants from flooding the U.S. market with low-priced goods after the Revolution, and American producers suffered from the competition. Compounding the problem, states often imposed tariffs on items produced by other states and otherwise interfered with their neighbors’ trade.
The national government also lacked the power to raise an army or navy. Fears of a standing army in the employ of a tyrannical government had led the writers of the Articles of Confederation to leave defense largely to the states. Although the central government could declare war and agree to peace, it had to depend upon the states to provide soldiers. If state governors chose not to honor the national government’s request, the country would lack an adequate defense. This was quite dangerous at a time when England and Spain still controlled large portions of North America (Table 2.1).
Table 2.1: The Articles of Confederation suffered from many problems that could not be easily repaired. The biggest problem was the lack of power given to the national government.
Problems with the Articles of Confederation
Weakness of the Articles of Confederation Why Was This a Problem?
The national government could not impose taxes on citizens. It could only request money from the states. Requests for money were usually not honored. As a result, the national government did not have money to pay for national defense or fulfill its other responsibilities.
The national government could not regulate foreign trade or interstate commerce. The government could not prevent foreign countries from hurting American competitors by shipping inexpensive products to the United States. It could not prevent states from passing laws that interfered with domestic trade.
The national government could not raise an army. It had to request the states to send men. State governments could choose not to honor Congress’s request for troops. This would make it hard to defend the nation.
Each state had only one vote in Congress regardless of its size. Populous states were less well represented.
The Articles could not be changed without a unanimous vote to do so. Problems with the Articles could not be easily fixed.
There was no national judicial system. Judiciaries are important enforcers of national government power.
The weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, already recognized by many, became apparent to all as a result of an uprising of Massachusetts farmers, led by Daniel Shays. Known as Shays’ Rebellion, the incident panicked the governor of Massachusetts, who called upon the national government for assistance. However, with no power to raise an army, the government had no troops at its disposal. After several months, Massachusetts crushed the uprising with the help of local militias and privately funded armies, but wealthy people were frightened by this display of unrest on the part of poor men and by similar incidents taking place in other states.6 To find a solution and resolve problems related to commerce, members of Congress called for a revision of the Articles of Confederation.
Milestone
Shays’ Rebellion: Symbol of Disorder and Impetus to Act
In the summer of 1786, farmers in western Massachusetts were heavily in debt, facing imprisonment and the loss of their lands. They owed taxes that had gone unpaid while they were away fighting the British during the Revolution. The Continental Congress had promised to pay them for their service, but the national government did not have sufficient money. Moreover, the farmers were unable to meet the onerous new tax burden Massachusetts imposed in order to pay its own debts from the Revolution.
Led by Daniel Shays (Figure 2.6), the heavily indebted farmers marched to a local courthouse demanding relief. Faced with the refusal of many Massachusetts militiamen to arrest the rebels, with whom they sympathized, Governor James Bowdoin called upon the national government for aid, but none was available. The uprising was finally brought to an end the following year by a privately funded militia after the protestors’ unsuccessful attempt to raid the Springfield Armory.
Were Shays and his followers justified in their attacks on the government of Massachusetts? What rights might they have sought to protect? | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/02%3A_The_Constitution_and_Its_Origins/2.03%3A_The_Articles_of_Confederation.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Identify the conflicts present and the compromises reached in drafting the Constitution
• Summarize the core features of the structure of U.S. government under the Constitution
In 1786, Virginia and Maryland invited delegates from the other eleven states to meet in Annapolis, Maryland, for the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. However, only five states sent representatives. Because all thirteen states had to agree to any alteration of the Articles, the convention in Annapolis could not accomplish its goal. Two of the delegates, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, requested that all states send delegates to a convention in Philadelphia the following year to attempt once again to revise the Articles of Confederation. All the states except Rhode Island chose delegates to send to the meeting, a total of seventy men in all, but many did not attend. Among those not in attendance were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom were overseas representing the country as diplomats. Because the shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation proved impossible to overcome, the convention that met in Philadelphia in 1787 decided to create an entirely new government.
Points of Contention
Fifty-five delegates arrived in Philadelphia in May 1787 for the meeting that became known as the Constitutional Convention. Many wanted to strengthen the role and authority of the national government but feared creating a central government that was too powerful. They wished to preserve state autonomy, although not to a degree that prevented the states from working together collectively or made them entirely independent of the will of the national government. While seeking to protect the rights of individuals from government abuse, they nevertheless wished to create a society in which concerns for law and order did not give way in the face of demands for individual liberty. They wished to give political rights to all free men but also feared mob rule, which many felt would have been the result of Shays’ Rebellion had it succeeded. Delegates from small states did not want their interests pushed aside by delegations from more populous states like Virginia. And everyone was concerned about slavery. Representatives from southern states worried that delegates from states where it had been or was being abolished might try to outlaw the institution. Those who favored a nation free of the influence of slavery feared that southerners might attempt to make it a permanent part of American society. The only decision that all could agree on was the election of George Washington, the former commander of the Continental Army and hero of the American Revolution, as the president of the convention.
The Question of Representation: Small States vs. Large States
One of the first differences among the delegates to become clear was between those from large states, such as New York and Virginia, and those who represented small states, like Delaware. When discussing the structure of the government under the new constitution, the delegates from Virginia called for a bicameral legislature consisting of two houses. The number of a state’s representatives in each house was to be based on the state’s population. In each state, representatives in the lower house would be elected by popular vote. These representatives would then select their state’s representatives in the upper house from among candidates proposed by the state’s legislature. Once a representative’s term in the legislature had ended, the representative could not be reelected until an unspecified amount of time had passed.
Delegates from small states objected to this Virginia Plan. Another proposal, the New Jersey Plan, called for a unicameral legislature with one house, in which each state would have one vote. Thus, smaller states would have the same power in the national legislature as larger states. However, the larger states argued that because they had more residents, they should be allotted more legislators to represent their interests (Figure 2.7).
Slavery and Freedom
Another fundamental division separated the states. Following the Revolution, some of the northern states had either abolished slavery or instituted plans by which slaves would gradually be emancipated. Pennsylvania, for example, had passed the Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in 1780. All people born in the state to enslaved mothers after the law’s passage would become indentured servants to be set free at age twenty-eight. In 1783, Massachusetts had freed all enslaved people within the state. Many Americans believed slavery was opposed to the ideals stated in the Declaration of Independence. Others felt it was inconsistent with the teachings of Christianity. Some feared for the safety of the country’s white population if the number of slaves and white Americans’ reliance on them increased. Although some southerners shared similar sentiments, none of the southern states had abolished slavery and none wanted the Constitution to interfere with the institution. In addition to supporting the agriculture of the South, slaves could be taxed as property and counted as population for purposes of a state’s representation in the government.
Federal Supremacy vs. State Sovereignty
Perhaps the greatest division among the states split those who favored a strong national government and those who favored limiting its powers and allowing states to govern themselves in most matters. Supporters of a strong central government argued that it was necessary for the survival and efficient functioning of the new nation. Without the authority to maintain and command an army and navy, the nation could not defend itself at a time when European powers still maintained formidable empires in North America. Without the power to tax and regulate trade, the government would not have enough money to maintain the nation’s defense, protect American farmers and manufacturers from foreign competition, create the infrastructure necessary for interstate commerce and communications, maintain foreign embassies, or pay federal judges and other government officials. Furthermore, other countries would be reluctant to loan money to the United States if the federal government lacked the ability to impose taxes in order to repay its debts. Besides giving more power to populous states, the Virginia Plan also favored a strong national government that would legislate for the states in many areas and would have the power to veto laws passed by state legislatures.
Others, however, feared that a strong national government might become too powerful and use its authority to oppress citizens and deprive them of their rights. They advocated a central government with sufficient authority to defend the nation but insisted that other powers be left to the states, which were believed to be better able to understand and protect the needs and interests of their residents. Such delegates approved the approach of the New Jersey Plan, which retained the unicameral Congress that had existed under the Articles of Confederation. It gave additional power to the national government, such as the power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce and to compel states to comply with laws passed by Congress. However, states still retained a lot of power, including power over the national government. Congress, for example, could not impose taxes without the consent of the states. Furthermore, the nation’s chief executive, appointed by the Congress, could be removed by Congress if state governors demanded it.
Individual Liberty vs. Social Stability
The belief that the king and Parliament had deprived colonists of their liberties had led to the Revolution, and many feared the government of the United States might one day attempt to do the same. They wanted and expected their new government to guarantee the rights of life, liberty, and property. Others believed it was more important for the national government to maintain order, and this might require it to limit personal liberty at times. All Americans, however, desired that the government not intrude upon people’s rights to life, liberty, and property without reason.
Compromise and the Constitutional Design of American Government
Beginning in May 1787 and throughout the long, hot Philadelphia summer, the delegations from twelve states discussed, debated, and finally—after compromising many times—by September had worked out a new blueprint for the nation. The document they created, the U.S. Constitution, was an ingenious instrument that allayed fears of a too-powerful central government and solved the problems that had beleaguered the national government under the Articles of Confederation. For the most part, it also resolved the conflicts between small and large states, northern and southern states, and those who favored a strong federal government and those who argued for state sovereignty.
Link to Learning
The closest thing to minutes of the Constitutional Convention is the collection of James Madison’s letters and notes about the proceedings in Philadelphia. Several such letters and notes may be found at the Library of Congress’s American Memory project.
The Great Compromise
The Constitution consists of a preamble and seven articles. The first three articles divide the national government into three branches—Congress, the executive branch, and the federal judiciary—and describe the powers and responsibilities of each. In Article I, ten sections describe the structure of Congress, the basis for representation and the requirements for serving in Congress, the length of Congressional terms, and the powers of Congress. The national legislature created by the article reflects the compromises reached by the delegates regarding such issues as representation, slavery, and national power.
After debating at length over whether the Virginia Plan or the New Jersey Plan provided the best model for the nation’s legislature, the framers of the Constitution had ultimately arrived at what is called the Great Compromise, suggested by Roger Sherman of Connecticut. Congress, it was decided, would consist of two chambers: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each state, regardless of size, would have two senators, making for equal representation as in the New Jersey Plan. Representation in the House would be based on population. Senators were to be appointed by state legislatures, a variation on the Virginia Plan. Members of the House of Representatives would be popularly elected by the voters in each state. Elected members of the House would be limited to two years in office before having to seek reelection, and those appointed to the Senate by each state’s political elite would serve a term of six years.
Congress was given great power, including the power to tax, maintain an army and a navy, and regulate trade and commerce. Congress had authority that the national government lacked under the Articles of Confederation. It could also coin and borrow money, grant patents and copyrights, declare war, and establish laws regulating naturalization and bankruptcy. While legislation could be proposed by either chamber of Congress, it had to pass both chambers by a majority vote before being sent to the president to be signed into law, and all bills to raise revenue had to begin in the House of Representatives. Only those men elected by the voters to represent them could impose taxes upon them. There would be no more taxation without representation.
The Three-Fifths Compromise and the Debates over Slavery
The Great Compromise that determined the structure of Congress soon led to another debate, however. When states took a census of their population for the purpose of allotting House representatives, should slaves be counted? Southern states were adamant that they should be, while delegates from northern states were vehemently opposed, arguing that representatives from southern states could not represent the interests of enslaved people. If slaves were not counted, however, southern states would have far fewer representatives in the House than northern states did. For example, if South Carolina were allotted representatives based solely on its free population, it would receive only half the number it would have received if slaves, who made up approximately 43 percent of the population, were included.7
The Three-Fifths Compromise, illustrated in Figure 2.8, resolved the impasse, although not in a manner that truly satisfied anyone. For purposes of Congressional apportionment, slaveholding states were allowed to count all their free population, including free African Americans and 60 percent (three-fifths) of their enslaved population. To mollify the north, the compromise also allowed counting 60 percent of a state’s slave population for federal taxation, although no such taxes were ever collected. Another compromise regarding the institution of slavery granted Congress the right to impose taxes on imports in exchange for a twenty-year prohibition on laws attempting to ban the importation of slaves to the United States, which would hurt the economy of southern states more than that of northern states. Because the southern states, especially South Carolina, had made it clear they would leave the convention if abolition were attempted, no serious effort was made by the framers to abolish slavery in the new nation, even though many delegates disapproved of the institution.
Indeed, the Constitution contained two protections for slavery. Article I postponed the abolition of the foreign slave trade until 1808, and in the interim, those in slaveholding states were allowed to import as many slaves as they wished.8 Furthermore, the Constitution placed no restrictions on the domestic slave trade, so residents of one state could still sell enslaved people to other states. Article IV of the Constitution—which, among other things, required states to return fugitives to the states where they had been charged with crimes—also prevented slaves from gaining their freedom by escaping to states where slavery had been abolished. Clause 3 of Article IV (known as the fugitive slave clause) allowed slave owners to reclaim their human property in the states where slaves had fled.9
Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances
Although debates over slavery and representation in Congress occupied many at the convention, the chief concern was the challenge of increasing the authority of the national government while ensuring that it did not become too powerful. The framers resolved this problem through a separation of powers, dividing the national government into three separate branches and assigning different responsibilities to each one, as shown in Figure 2.9. They also created a system of checks and balances by giving each of three branches of government the power to restrict the actions of the others, thus requiring them to work together.
Congress was given the power to make laws, but the executive branch, consisting of the president and the vice president, and the federal judiciary, notably the Supreme Court, were created to, respectively, enforce laws and try cases arising under federal law. Neither of these branches had existed under the Articles of Confederation. Thus, Congress can pass laws, but its power to do so can be checked by the president, who can veto potential legislation so that it cannot become a law. Later, in the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison, the U.S. Supreme Court established its own authority to rule on the constitutionality of laws, a process called judicial review.
Other examples of checks and balances include the ability of Congress to limit the president’s veto. Should the president veto a bill passed by both houses of Congress, the bill is returned to Congress to be voted on again. If the bill passes both the House of Representatives and the Senate with a two-thirds vote in its favor, it becomes law even though the president has refused to sign it.
Congress is also able to limit the president’s power as commander-in-chief of the armed forces by refusing to declare war or provide funds for the military. To date, the Congress has never refused a president’s request for a declaration of war. The president must also seek the advice and consent of the Senate before appointing members of the Supreme Court and ambassadors, and the Senate must approve the ratification of all treaties signed by the president. Congress may even remove the president from office. To do this, both chambers of Congress must work together. The House of Representatives impeaches the president by bringing formal charges against him or her, and the Senate tries the case in a proceeding overseen by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The president is removed from office if found guilty.
According to political scientist Richard Neustadt, the system of separation of powers and checks and balances does not so much allow one part of government to control another as it encourages the branches to cooperate. Instead of a true separation of powers, the Constitutional Convention “created a government of separated institutions sharing powers.”10 For example, knowing the president can veto a law he or she disapproves, Congress will attempt to draft a bill that addresses the president’s concerns before sending it to the White House for signing. Similarly, knowing that Congress can override a veto, the president will use this power sparingly.
Federal Power vs. State Power
The strongest guarantee that the power of the national government would be restricted and the states would retain a degree of sovereignty was the framers’ creation of a federal system of government. In a federal system, power is divided between the federal (or national) government and the state governments. Great or explicit powers, called enumerated powers, were granted to the federal government to declare war, impose taxes, coin and regulate currency, regulate foreign and interstate commerce, raise and maintain an army and a navy, maintain a post office, make treaties with foreign nations and with Native American tribes, and make laws regulating the naturalization of immigrants.
All powers not expressly given to the national government, however, were intended to be exercised by the states. These powers are known as reserved powers(Figure 2.10). Thus, states remained free to pass laws regarding such things as intrastate commerce (commerce within the borders of a state) and marriage. Some powers, such as the right to levy taxes, were given to both the state and federal governments. Both the states and the federal government have a chief executive to enforce the laws (a governor and the president, respectively) and a system of courts.
Although the states retained a considerable degree of sovereignty, the supremacy clause in Article VI of the Constitution proclaimed that the Constitution, laws passed by Congress, and treaties made by the federal government were “the supreme Law of the Land.” In the event of a conflict between the states and the national government, the national government would triumph. Furthermore, although the federal government was to be limited to those powers enumerated in the Constitution, Article I provided for the expansion of Congressional powers if needed. The “necessary and proper” clause of Article I provides that Congress may “make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing [enumerated] Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”
The Constitution also gave the federal government control over all “Territory or other Property belonging to the United States.” This would prove problematic when, as the United States expanded westward and population growth led to an increase in the power of the northern states in Congress, the federal government sought to restrict the expansion of slavery into newly acquired territories.
Link to Learning
A growing number of institutes and study centers focus on the Constitution and the founding of the republic. Examples such as the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage and the Bill of Rights Institute have informative public websites with documents and videos. Another example is the National Constitution Center that also holds programs related to aspects of the enduring U.S. Constitution. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/02%3A_The_Constitution_and_Its_Origins/2.04%3A_The_Development_of_the_Constitution.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Identify the steps required to ratify the Constitution
• Describe arguments the framers raised in support of a strong national government and counterpoints raised by the Anti-Federalists
On September 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia voted to approve the document they had drafted over the course of many months. Some did not support it, but the majority did. Before it could become the law of the land, however, the Constitution faced another hurdle. It had to be ratified by the states.
The Ratification Process
Article VII, the final article of the Constitution, required that before the Constitution could become law and a new government could form, the document had to be ratified by nine of the thirteen states. Eleven days after the delegates at the Philadelphia convention approved it, copies of the Constitution were sent to each of the states, which were to hold ratifying conventions to either accept or reject it.
This approach to ratification was an unusual one. Since the authority inherent in the Articles of Confederation and the Confederation Congress had rested on the consent of the states, changes to the nation’s government should also have been ratified by the state legislatures. Instead, by calling upon state legislatures to hold ratification conventions to approve the Constitution, the framers avoided asking the legislators to approve a document that would require them to give up a degree of their own power. The men attending the ratification conventions would be delegates elected by their neighbors to represent their interests. They were not being asked to relinquish their power; in fact, they were being asked to place limits upon the power of their state legislators, whom they may not have elected in the first place. Finally, because the new nation was to be a republic in which power was held by the people through their elected representatives, it was considered appropriate to leave the ultimate acceptance or rejection of the Constitution to the nation’s citizens. If convention delegates, who were chosen by popular vote, approved it, then the new government could rightly claim that it ruled with the consent of the people.
The greatest sticking point when it came to ratification, as it had been at the Constitutional Convention itself, was the relative power of the state and federal governments. The framers of the Constitution believed that without the ability to maintain and command an army and navy, impose taxes, and force the states to comply with laws passed by Congress, the young nation would not survive for very long. But many people resisted increasing the powers of the national government at the expense of the states. Virginia’s Patrick Henry, for example, feared that the newly created office of president would place excessive power in the hands of one man. He also disapproved of the federal government’s new ability to tax its citizens. This right, Henry believed, should remain with the states.
Other delegates, such as Edmund Randolph of Virginia, disapproved of the Constitution because it created a new federal judicial system. Their fear was that the federal courts would be too far away from where those who were tried lived. State courts were located closer to the homes of both plaintiffs and defendants, and it was believed that judges and juries in state courts could better understand the actions of those who appeared before them. In response to these fears, the federal government created federal courts in each of the states as well as in Maine, which was then part of Massachusetts, and Kentucky, which was part of Virginia.11
Perhaps the greatest source of dissatisfaction with the Constitution was that it did not guarantee protection of individual liberties. State governments had given jury trials to residents charged with violating the law and allowed their residents to possess weapons for their protection. Some had practiced religious tolerance as well. The Constitution, however, did not contain reassurances that the federal government would do so. Although it provided for habeas corpus and prohibited both a religious test for holding office and granting noble titles, some citizens feared the loss of their traditional rights and the violation of their liberties. This led many of the Constitution’s opponents to call for a bill of rights and the refusal to ratify the document without one. The lack of a bill of rights was especially problematic in Virginia, as the Virginia Declaration of Rights was the most extensive rights-granting document among the states. The promise that a bill of rights would be drafted for the Constitution persuaded delegates in many states to support ratification.12
Insider Perspective
Thomas Jefferson on the Bill of Rights
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson carried on a lively correspondence regarding the ratification of the Constitution. In the following excerpt (reproduced as written) from a letter dated March 15, 1789, after the Constitution had been ratified by nine states but before it had been approved by all thirteen, Jefferson reiterates his previously expressed concerns that a bill of rights to protect citizens’ freedoms was necessary and should be added to the Constitution:
“In the arguments in favor of a declaration of rights, . . . I am happy to find that on the whole you are a friend to this amendment. The Declaration of rights is like all other human blessings alloyed with some inconveniences, and not accomplishing fully it’s object. But the good in this instance vastly overweighs the evil. . . . This instrument [the Constitution] forms us into one state as to certain objects, and gives us a legislative & executive body for these objects. It should therefore guard us against their abuses of power. . . . Experience proves the inefficacy of a bill of rights. True. But tho it is not absolutely efficacious under all circumstances, it is of great potency always, and rarely inefficacious. . . . There is a remarkeable difference between the . . . Inconveniences which attend a Declaration of rights, & those which attend the want of it. . . . The inconveniences of the want of a Declaration are permanent, afflicting & irreparable: they are in constant progression from bad to worse.”13
What were some of the inconveniences of not having a bill of rights that Jefferson mentioned? Why did he decide in favor of having one?
It was clear how some states would vote. Smaller states, like Delaware, favored the Constitution. Equal representation in the Senate would give them a degree of equality with the larger states, and a strong national government with an army at its command would be better able to defend them than their state militias could. Larger states, however, had significant power to lose. They did not believe they needed the federal government to defend them and disliked the prospect of having to provide tax money to support the new government. Thus, from the very beginning, the supporters of the Constitution feared that New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia would refuse to ratify it. That would mean all nine of the remaining states would have to, and Rhode Island, the smallest state, was unlikely to do so. It had not even sent delegates to the convention in Philadelphia. And even if it joined the other states in ratifying the document and the requisite nine votes were cast, the new nation would not be secure without its largest, wealthiest, and most populous states as members of the union.
The Ratification Campaign
On the question of ratification, citizens quickly separated into two groups: Federalists and Anti-Federalists. The Federalists supported it. They tended to be among the elite members of society—wealthy and well-educated landowners, businessmen, and former military commanders who believed a strong government would be better for both national defense and economic growth. A national currency, which the federal government had the power to create, would ease business transactions. The ability of the federal government to regulate trade and place tariffs on imports would protect merchants from foreign competition. Furthermore, the power to collect taxes would allow the national government to fund internal improvements like roads, which would also help businessmen. Support for the Federalists was especially strong in New England.
Opponents of ratification were called Anti-Federalists. Anti-Federalists feared the power of the national government and believed state legislatures, with which they had more contact, could better protect their freedoms. Although some Anti-Federalists, like Patrick Henry, were wealthy, most distrusted the elite and believed a strong federal government would favor the rich over those of “the middling sort.” This was certainly the fear of Melancton Smith, a New York merchant and landowner, who believed that power should rest in the hands of small, landowning farmers of average wealth who “are more temperate, of better morals and less ambitious than the great.”14 Even members of the social elite, like Henry, feared that the centralization of power would lead to the creation of a political aristocracy, to the detriment of state sovereignty and individual liberty.
Related to these concerns were fears that the strong central government Federalists advocated for would levy taxes on farmers and planters, who lacked the hard currency needed to pay them. Many also believed Congress would impose tariffs on foreign imports that would make American agricultural products less welcome in Europe and in European colonies in the western hemisphere. For these reasons, Anti-Federalist sentiment was especially strong in the South.
Some Anti-Federalists also believed that the large federal republic that the Constitution would create could not work as intended. Americans had long believed that virtue was necessary in a nation where people governed themselves (i.e., the ability to put self-interest and petty concerns aside for the good of the larger community). In small republics, similarities among members of the community would naturally lead them to the same positions and make it easier for those in power to understand the needs of their neighbors. In a larger republic, one that encompassed nearly the entire Eastern Seaboard and ran west to the Appalachian Mountains, people would lack such a strong commonality of interests.15
Likewise, Anti-Federalists argued, the diversity of religion tolerated by the Constitution would prevent the formation of a political community with shared values and interests. The Constitution contained no provisions for government support of churches or of religious education, and Article VI explicitly forbade the use of religious tests to determine eligibility for public office. This caused many, like Henry Abbot of North Carolina, to fear that government would be placed in the hands of “pagans . . . and Mahometans [Muslims].”16
It is difficult to determine how many people were Federalists and how many were Anti-Federalists in 1787. The Federalists won the day, but they may not have been in the majority. First, the Federalist position tended to win support among businessmen, large farmers, and, in the South, plantation owners. These people tended to live along the Eastern Seaboard. In 1787, most of the states were divided into voting districts in a manner that gave more votes to the eastern part of the state than to the western part.17 Thus, in some states, like Virginia and South Carolina, small farmers who may have favored the Anti-Federalist position were unable to elect as many delegates to state ratification conventions as those who lived in the east. Small settlements may also have lacked the funds to send delegates to the convention.18
In all the states, educated men authored pamphlets and published essays and cartoons arguing either for or against ratification (Figure 2.11). Although many writers supported each position, it is the Federalist essays that are now best known. The arguments these authors put forth, along with explicit guarantees that amendments would be added to protect individual liberties, helped to sway delegates to ratification conventions in many states.
For obvious reasons, smaller, less populous states favored the Constitution and the protection of a strong federal government. As shown in Figure 2.12, Delaware and New Jersey ratified the document within a few months after it was sent to them for approval in 1787. Connecticut ratified it early in 1788. Some of the larger states, such as Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, also voted in favor of the new government. New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution in the summer of 1788.
Although the Constitution went into effect following ratification by New Hampshire, four states still remained outside the newly formed union. Two were the wealthy, populous states of Virginia and New York. In Virginia, James Madison’s active support and the intercession of George Washington, who wrote letters to the convention, changed the minds of many. Some who had initially opposed the Constitution, such as Edmund Randolph, were persuaded that the creation of a strong union was necessary for the country’s survival and changed their position. Other Virginia delegates were swayed by the promise that a bill of rights similar to the Virginia Declaration of Rights would be added after the Constitution was ratified. On June 25, 1788, Virginia became the tenth state to grant its approval.
The approval of New York was the last major hurdle. Facing considerable opposition to the Constitution in that state, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote a series of essays, beginning in 1787, arguing for a strong federal government and support of the Constitution (Figure 2.13). Later compiled as The Federalistand now known as The Federalist Papers, these eighty-five essays were originally published in newspapers in New York and other states under the name of Publius, a supporter of the Roman Republic.
The essays addressed a variety of issues that troubled citizens. For example, in Federalist No. 51, attributed to James Madison (Figure 2.14), the author assured readers they did not need to fear that the national government would grow too powerful. The federal system, in which power was divided between the national and state governments, and the division of authority within the federal government into separate branches would prevent any one part of the government from becoming too strong. Furthermore, tyranny could not arise in a government in which “the legislature necessarily predominates.” Finally, the desire of office holders in each branch of government to exercise the powers given to them, described as “personal motives,” would encourage them to limit any attempt by the other branches to overstep their authority. According to Madison, “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.”
Other essays countered different criticisms made of the Constitution and echoed the argument in favor of a strong national government. In Federalist No. 35, for example, Hamilton (Figure 2.14) argued that people’s interests could in fact be represented by men who were not their neighbors. Indeed, Hamilton asked rhetorically, would American citizens best be served by a representative “whose observation does not travel beyond the circle of his neighbors and his acquaintances” or by someone with more extensive knowledge of the world? To those who argued that a merchant and land-owning elite would come to dominate Congress, Hamilton countered that the majority of men currently sitting in New York’s state senate and assembly were landowners of moderate wealth and that artisans usually chose merchants, “their natural patron[s] and friend[s],” to represent them. An aristocracy would not arise, and if it did, its members would have been chosen by lesser men. Similarly, Jayreminded New Yorkers in Federalist No. 2 that union had been the goal of Americans since the time of the Revolution. A desire for union was natural among people of such “similar sentiments” who “were united to each other by the strongest ties,” and the government proposed by the Constitution was the best means of achieving that union.
Objections that an elite group of wealthy and educated bankers, businessmen, and large landowners would come to dominate the nation’s politics were also addressed by Madison in Federalist No. 10. Americans need not fear the power of factions or special interests, he argued, for the republic was too big and the interests of its people too diverse to allow the development of large, powerful political parties. Likewise, elected representatives, who were expected to “possess the most attractive merit,” would protect the government from being controlled by “an unjust and interested [biased in favor of their own interests] majority.”
For those who worried that the president might indeed grow too ambitious or king-like, Hamilton, in Federalist No. 68, provided assurance that placing the leadership of the country in the hands of one person was not dangerous. Electors from each state would select the president. Because these men would be members of a “transient” body called together only for the purpose of choosing the president and would meet in separate deliberations in each state, they would be free of corruption and beyond the influence of the “heats and ferments” of the voters. Indeed, Hamilton argued in Federalist No. 70, instead of being afraid that the president would become a tyrant, Americans should realize that it was easier to control one person than it was to control many. Furthermore, one person could also act with an “energy” that Congress did not possess. Making decisions alone, the president could decide what actions should be taken faster than could Congress, whose deliberations, because of its size, were necessarily slow. At times, the “decision, activity, secrecy, and dispatch” of the chief executive might be necessary.
Link to Learning
The Library of Congress has The Federalist Papers on their website. The Anti-Federalists also produced a body of writings, less extensive than The Federalists Papers, which argued against the ratification of the Constitution. However, these were not written by one small group of men as The Federalist Papers had been. A collection of the writings that are unofficially called The Anti-Federalist Papers is also available online.
The Library of Congress has The Federalist Papers on their website. The Anti-Federalists also produced a body of writings, less extensive than The Federalists Papers, which argued against the ratification of the Constitution. However, these were not written by one small group of men as The Federalist Papers had been. A collection of the writings that are unofficially called The Anti-Federalist Papers is also available online.
The arguments of the Federalists were persuasive, but whether they actually succeeded in changing the minds of New Yorkers is unclear. Once Virginia ratified the Constitution on June 25, 1788, New York realized that it had little choice but to do so as well. If it did not ratify the Constitution, it would be the last large state that had not joined the union. Thus, on July 26, 1788, the majority of delegates to New York’s ratification convention voted to accept the Constitution. A year later, North Carolina became the twelfth state to approve. Alone and realizing it could not hope to survive on its own, Rhode Island became the last state to ratify, nearly two years after New York had done so.
Finding a Middle Ground
Term Limits
One of the objections raised to the Constitution’s new government was that it did not set term limits for members of Congress or the president. Those who opposed a strong central government argued that this failure could allow a handful of powerful men to gain control of the nation and rule it for as long as they wished. Although the framers did not anticipate the idea of career politicians, those who supported the Constitution argued that reelecting the president and reappointing senators by state legislatures would create a body of experienced men who could better guide the country through crises. A president who did not prove to be a good leader would be voted out of office instead of being reelected. In fact, presidents long followed George Washington’s example and limited themselves to two terms. Only in 1951, after Franklin Roosevelt had been elected four times, was the Twenty-Second Amendment passed to restrict the presidency to two terms.
Are term limits a good idea? Should they have originally been included in the Constitution? Why or why not? Are there times when term limits might not be good? | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/02%3A_The_Constitution_and_Its_Origins/2.05%3A_The_Ratification_of_the_Constitution.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Describe how the Constitution can be formally amended
• Explain the contents and significance of the Bill of Rights
• Discuss the importance of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Nineteenth Amendments
A major problem with the Articles of Confederation had been the nation’s inability to change them without the unanimous consent of all the states. The framers learned this lesson well. One of the strengths they built into the Constitution was the ability to amend it to meet the nation’s needs, reflect the changing times, and address concerns or structural elements they had not anticipated.
The Amendment Process
Since ratification in 1789, the Constitution has been amended only twenty-seven times. The first ten amendments were added in 1791. Responding to charges by Anti-Federalists that the Constitution made the national government too powerful and provided no protections for the rights of individuals, the newly elected federal government tackled the issue of guaranteeing liberties for American citizens. James Madison, a member of Congress from Virginia, took the lead in drafting nineteen potential changes to the Constitution.
Madison followed the procedure outlined in Article V that says amendments can originate from one of two sources. First, they can be proposed by Congress. Then, they must be approved by a two-thirds majority in both the House and the Senate before being sent to the states for potential ratification. States have two ways to ratify or defeat a proposed amendment. First, if three-quarters of state legislatures vote to approve an amendment, it becomes part of the Constitution. Second, if three-quarters of state-ratifying conventions support the amendment, it is ratified. A second method of proposal of an amendment allows for the petitioning of Congress by the states: Upon receiving such petitions from two-thirds of the states, Congress must call a convention for the purpose of proposing amendments, which would then be forwarded to the states for ratification by the required three-quarters. All the current constitutional amendments were created using the first method of proposal (via Congress).
Having drafted nineteen proposed amendments, Madison submitted them to Congress. Only twelve were approved by two-thirds of both the Senate and the House of Representatives and sent to the states for ratification. Of these, only ten were accepted by three-quarters of the state legislatures. In 1791, these first ten amendments were added to the Constitution and became known as the Bill of Rights.
The ability to change the Constitution has made it a flexible, living document that can respond to the nation’s changing needs and has helped it remain in effect for more than 225 years. At the same time, the framers made amending the document sufficiently difficult that it has not been changed repeatedly; only seventeen amendments have been added since the ratification of the first ten (one of these, the Twenty-Seventh Amendment, was among Madison’s rejected nine proposals). Recent conversations about needed amendments have related to women's rights, flag burning, and reforming the Electoral College. To date, none of these has advanced.
Key Constitutional Changes
The Bill of Rights was intended to quiet the fears of Anti-Federalists that the Constitution did not adequately protect individual liberties and thus encourage their support of the new national government. Many of these first ten amendments were based on provisions of the English Bill of Rights and the Virginia Declaration of Rights. For example, the right to bear arms for protection (Second Amendment), the right not to have to provide shelter and provision for soldiers in peacetime (Third Amendment), the right to a trial by jury (Sixth and Seventh Amendments), and protection from excessive fines and from cruel and unusual punishment (Eighth Amendment) are taken from the English Bill of Rights. The Fifth Amendment, which requires among other things that people cannot be deprived of their life, liberty, or property except by a legal proceeding, was also greatly influenced by English law as well as the protections granted to Virginians in the Virginia Declaration of Rights.
Link to Learning
Learn more about the formal process of amending the Constitution and view exhibits related to the passage of specific amendments at the National Archives website.
Learn more about the formal process of amending the Constitution and view exhibits related to the passage of specific amendments at the National Archives website.
Other liberties, however, do not derive from British precedents. The protections for religion, speech, the press, and assembly that are granted by the First Amendment did not exist under English law. (The right to petition the government did, however.) The prohibition in the First Amendment against the establishment of an official church by the federal government differed significantly from both English precedent and the practice of several states that had official churches. The Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans from unwarranted search and seizure of their property, was also new.
The Ninth and Tenth Amendments were intended to provide yet another assurance that people’s rights would be protected and that the federal government would not become too powerful. The Ninth Amendmentguarantees that liberties extend beyond those described in the preceding documents. This was an important acknowledgment that the protected rights were extensive, and the government should not attempt to interfere with them. The Supreme Court, for example, has held that the Ninth Amendment protects the right to privacy even though none of the preceding amendments explicitly mentions this right. The Tenth Amendment, one of the first submitted to the states for ratification, ensures that states possess all powers not explicitly assigned to the federal government by the Constitution. This guarantee protects states’ reserved powers to regulate such things as marriage, divorce, and intrastate transportation and commerce, and to pass laws affecting education and public health and safety.
Of the later amendments only one, the Twenty-First, repealed another amendment, the Eighteenth, which had prohibited the manufacture, import, export, distribution, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. Other amendments rectify problems that have arisen over the years or that reflect changing times. For example, the Seventeenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, gave voters the right to directly elect U.S. senators. The Twentieth Amendment, which was ratified in 1933 during the Great Depression, moved the date of the presidential inauguration from March to January. In a time of crisis, like a severe economic depression, the president needed to take office almost immediately after being elected, and modern transportation allowed the new president to travel to the nation’s capital quicker than before. The Twenty-Second Amendment, added in 1955, limits the president to two terms in office, and the Twenty-Seventh Amendment, first submitted for ratification in 1789, regulates the implementation of laws regarding salary increases or decreases for members of Congress.
Of the remaining amendments, four are of especially great significance. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments are the result of long-fought campaigns by supporters of abolition and the expansion of voting rights to all citizens regardless of gender or race. These campaigns gathered momentum during the Reconstruction Era, when prominent abolitionist Frederick Douglass argued that African American men had earned the right to vote by their service during the Civil War and women’s rights leaders such as Susan B. Anthony and Ida B. Wells organized to promote voting rights for women.
Insider Perspective
Abolitionist and Suffragist Charlotte Forten Grimké
More than a century before Amanda Gorman wowed the country with her inspirational poem at the 2021 inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, another African American woman poet was making a difference in Washington, DC.
Charlotte Forten was born in Philadelphia in 1837 to a prominent family of abolitionists. She later became a teacher and writer, and, in her work, advanced the causes of women's suffrage and the abolition of slavery. During the Civil War, she taught newly freed ensalved people in South Carolina and later moved to Washington, DC, where she taught secondary school, wrote poetry, and participated in social movements related to race and gender, including helping establish the National Association of Colored Women and fighting for a woman’s right to vote. In 1878, she married Francis J. Grimké, the nephew of famed abolitionists Sarah and Angelina Grimké. Today, her longtime home in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington is on the National Register of Historic Places.19
Among her many publications is the inspirational poem “Wordsworth,” written in honor of Romantic poet William Wordsworth, one of her favorite authors.
Poet of the serene and thoughtful lay!
In youth’s fair dawn, when the soul, still untried,
Longs for life’s conflict, and seeks restlessly
Food for its cravings in the stirring songs,
The thrilling strains of more impassioned bards;
Or, eager for fresh joys, culls with delight
The flowers that bloom in fancy’s fairy realm —
We may not prize the mild and steadfast ray
That streams from thy pure soul in tranquil song
But, in our riper years, when through the heat
And burden of the day we struggle on,
Breasting the stream upon whose shores we dreamed,
Weary of all the turmoil and the din
Which drowns the finer voices of the soul;
We turn to thee, true priest of Nature’s fane,
And find the rest our fainting spirits need, —
The calm, more ardent singers cannot give;
As in the glare intense of tropic days,
Gladly we turn from the sun’s radiant beams,
And grateful hail fair Luna’s tender light.20
Both Charlotte Forten Grimké and Amanda Gorman used their voices through poetry to give hope to a nation during challenging times. What other challenging times has the U.S. faced and who were the voices of hope that lifted us up?
The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, ratified at the end of the Civil War, changed the lives of African Americans who had been held in slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to African Americans and equal protection under the law regardless of race or color. It also prohibited states from depriving their residents of life, liberty, or property without a legal proceeding. Over the years, the Fourteenth Amendment has been used to require states to protect most of the same federal freedoms granted by the Bill of Rights.
The Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments extended the right to vote. The Constitution had given states the power to set voting requirements, but the states had used this authority to deny women the right to vote. Most states before the 1830s had also used this authority to deny suffrage to property-less men and often to African American men as well. When states began to change property requirements for voters in the 1830s, many that had allowed free, property-owning African American men to vote restricted the suffrage to White men. The Fifteenth Amendment gave men the right to vote regardless of race or color, but women were still prohibited from voting in most states. After many years of campaigns for suffrage, as shown in Figure 2.16, the Nineteenth Amendment finally gave women the right to vote in 1920.
Subsequent amendments further extended the suffrage. The Twenty-Third Amendment (1961) allowed residents of Washington, DC to vote for the president. The Twenty-Fourth Amendment (1964) abolished the use of poll taxes. Many southern states had used a poll tax, a tax placed on voting, to prevent poor African Americans from voting. Thus, the states could circumvent the Fifteenth Amendment; they argued that they were denying African American men and women the right to vote not because of their race but because of their inability to pay the tax. The last great extension of the suffrage occurred in 1971 in the midst of the Vietnam War. The Twenty-Sixth Amendment reduced the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. Many people had complained that the young men who were fighting in Vietnam should have the right to vote for or against those making decisions that might literally mean life or death for them. Many other amendments have been proposed over the years, including an amendment to guarantee equal rights to women, but all have failed.
Get Connected!
Guaranteeing Your First Amendment Rights
The liberties of U.S. citizens are protected by the Bill of Rights, but potential or perceived threats to these freedoms arise constantly. This is especially true regarding First Amendment rights. Read about some of these threats at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) website and let people know how you feel about these issues.
What issue regarding First Amendment protections causes you the most concern? | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/02%3A_The_Constitution_and_Its_Origins/2.06%3A__Constitutional_Change.txt |
Anti-Federalists
those who did not support ratification of the Constitution
Articles of Confederation
the first basis for the new nation’s government; adopted in 1781; created an alliance of sovereign states held together by a weak central government
bicameral legislature
a legislature with two houses, such as the U.S. Congress
Bill of Rights
the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution; most were designed to protect fundamental rights and liberties
checks and balances
a system that allows one branch of government to limit the exercise of power by another branch; requires the different parts of government to work together
confederation
a highly decentralized form of government; sovereign states form a union for purposes such as mutual defense
Declaration of Independence
a document written in 1776 in which the American colonists proclaimed their independence from Great Britain and listed their grievances against the British king
enumerated powers
the powers given explicitly to the federal government by the Constitution (Article I, Section 8); power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce, raise and support armies, declare war, coin money, and conduct foreign affairs
federal system
a form of government in which power is divided between state governments and a national government
Federalists
those who supported ratification of the Constitution
Great Compromise
a compromise between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan that created a two-house Congress; representation based on population in the House of Representatives and equal representation of states in the Senate
natural rights
the right to life, liberty, and property; believed to be given by God; no government may take away
New Jersey Plan
a plan that called for a one-house national legislature; each state would receive one vote
republic
a form of government in which political power rests in the hands of the people, not a monarch, and is exercised by elected representatives
reserved powers
any powers not prohibited by the Constitution or delegated to the national government; powers reserved to the states and denied to the federal government
separation of powers
the sharing of powers among three separate branches of government
social contract
an agreement between people and government in which citizens consent to be governed so long as the government protects their natural rights
supremacy clause
the statement in Article VI of the Constitution that federal law is superior to laws passed by state legislatures
The Federalist Papers
a collection of eighty-five essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in support of ratification of the Constitution
Three-Fifths Compromise
a compromise between northern and southern states that called for counting of all a state’s free population and 60 percent of its enslaved population for both federal taxation and representation in Congress
unicameral legislature
a legislature with only one house, like the Confederation Congress or the legislature proposed by the New Jersey Plan
veto
the power of the president to reject a law proposed by Congress
Virginia Plan
a plan for a two-house legislature; representatives would be elected to the lower house based on each state’s population; representatives for the upper house would be chosen by the lower house | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/02%3A_The_Constitution_and_Its_Origins/2.07%3A_Key_Terms.txt |
The Pre-Revolutionary Period and the Roots of the American Political Tradition
For many years the British colonists in North America had peacefully accepted rule by the king and Parliament. They were proud to be Englishmen. Much of their pride, however, stemmed from their belief that they were heirs to a tradition of limited government and royal acknowledgement of the rights of their subjects.
Colonists’ pride in their English liberties gave way to dismay when they perceived that these liberties were being abused. People had come to regard life, liberty, and property not as gifts from the monarch but as natural rights no government could take away. A chain of incidents—the Proclamation of 1763, the trial of smugglers in courts without juries, the imposition of taxes without the colonists’ consent, and the attempted interference with self-government in the colonies—convinced many colonists that the social contract between the British government and its citizens had been broken. In 1776, the Second Continental Congress declared American independence from Great Britain.
The Articles of Confederation
Fearful of creating a system so powerful that it might abuse its citizens, the men who drafted the Articles of Confederation deliberately sought to limit the powers of the national government. The states maintained the right to govern their residents, while the national government could declare war, coin money, and conduct foreign affairs but little else. Its inability to impose taxes, regulate commerce, or raise an army hindered its ability to defend the nation or pay its debts. A solution had to be found.
The Development of the Constitution
Realizing that flaws in the Articles of Confederation could harm the new country and recognizing that the Articles could not easily be revised as originally intended, delegates from the states who met in Philadelphia from May through September 1787 set about drafting a new governing document. The United States that emerged from the Constitutional Convention in September was not a confederation, but it was a republic whose national government had been strengthened greatly. Congress had been transformed into a bicameral legislature with additional powers, and a national judicial system had been created. Most importantly, a federal system had been established with the power to govern the new country.
To satisfy the concerns of those who feared an overly strong central government, the framers of the Constitution created a system with separation of powers and checks and balances. Although such measures satisfied many, concerns still lingered that the federal government remained too powerful.
The Ratification of the Constitution
Anti-Federalists objected to the power the Constitution gave the federal government and the absence of a bill of rights to protect individual liberties. The Federalists countered that a strong government was necessary to lead the new nation and promised to add a bill of rights to the Constitution. The Federalist Papers, in particular, argued in favor of ratification and sought to convince people that the new government would not become tyrannical. Finally, in June 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to approve the Constitution, making it the law of the land. The large and prosperous states of Virginia and New York followed shortly thereafter, and the remaining states joined as well.
Constitutional Change
One of the problems with the Articles of Confederation was the difficulty of changing it. To prevent this difficulty from recurring, the framers provided a method for amending the Constitution that required a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and in three-quarters of state legislatures to approve a change.
The possibility of amending the Constitution helped ensure its ratification, although many feared the powerful federal government it created would deprive them of their rights. To allay their anxieties, the framers promised that a Bill of Rights safeguarding individual liberties would be added following ratification. These ten amendments were formally added to the document in 1791 and other amendments followed over the years. Among the most important were those ending slavery, granting citizenship to African Americans, and giving the right to vote to Americans regardless of race, color, or sex. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/02%3A_The_Constitution_and_Its_Origins/2.08%3A_Summary.txt |
1. British colonists in North America in the late seventeenth century were greatly influenced by the political thought of ________.
1. King James II
2. Thomas Jefferson
3. John Locke
4. James Madison
Answer
C
1. The agreement that citizens will consent to be governed so long as government protects their natural rights is called ________.
1. the divine right of kings
2. the social contract
3. a bill of rights
4. due process
2. What key tenets of American political thought were influential in the decision to declare independence from Britain?
Answer
Americans believed all people (i.e., White males) possessed the rights to life, liberty, and property. The best way to protect these rights was by limiting the power of government and allowing people to govern themselves.
1. What actions by the British government convinced the colonists that they needed to declare their independence?
2. What important power did the national government lack under the Articles of Confederation?
1. It could not coin money.
2. It could not declare war.
3. It could not impose taxes.
4. It could not conduct foreign affairs.
Answer
C
1. In what ways did Shays’ Rebellion reveal the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?
2. According to the Great Compromise, how would representation in Congress be apportioned?
1. Each state would have equal representation in both the House of Representatives and the Senate
2. Congress would be a unicameral legislature with each state receiving equal representation.
3. Representation in the House of Representatives would be based on each state’s population and every state would have two senators.
4. Representation in both the House of Representatives and the Senate would be based on a state’s population.
Answer
C
1. How did the delegates to the Constitutional Convention resolve their disagreement regarding slavery?
1. It was agreed that Congress would abolish slavery in 1850.
2. It was agreed that a state’s enslaved population would be counted for purposes of representation but not for purposes of taxation.
3. It was agreed that a state’s enslaved population would be counted for purposes of taxation but not for purposes of representation.
4. It was agreed that 60 percent of a state’s enslaved population would be counted for purposes of both representation and taxation.
2. What does separation of powers mean?
Answer
Separation of powers refers to the process of dividing government into different branches and giving different responsibilities and powers to each branch. In this way, the separate branches must work together to govern the nation. For example, according to the Constitution, Congress has the power to draft legislation. However, the president must sign a piece of proposed legislation before it becomes a law. Thus, the president and Congress must work together to make the nation’s laws.
1. Why were The Federalist Papers written?
1. To encourage states to oppose the Constitution
2. To encourage New York to ratify the Constitution.
3. To oppose the admission of slaveholding states to the federal union.
4. To encourage people to vote for George Washington as the nation’s first president.
2. What argument did Alexander Hamilton use to convince people that it was not dangerous to place power in the hands of one man?
1. That man would have to pass a religious test before he could become president; thus, citizens could be sure that he was of good character.
2. One man could respond to crises more quickly than a group of men like Congress.
3. It was easier to control the actions of one man than the actions of a group.
4. both B and C
Answer
D
1. Why did so many people oppose ratification of the Constitution, and how was their opposition partly overcome?
2. How many states must ratify an amendment before it becomes law?
1. all
2. three-fourths
3. two-thirds
4. one-half
Answer
B
1. What is the Bill of Rights?
1. first ten amendments to the Constitution that protect individual freedoms
2. powers given to Congress in Article I of the Constitution
3. twenty-seven amendments added to the Constitution over the years
4. document authored by Thomas Jefferson that details the rights of the citizens
2. What did the Fourteenth Amendment achieve?
Answer
The Fourteenth Amendment gave citizenship to African Americans and made all Americans equal before the law regardless of race or color. Over the years it has also been used to require states to guarantee their residents the same protections as those granted by the federal government in the Bill of Rights | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/02%3A_The_Constitution_and_Its_Origins/2.09%3A_Review_Questions.txt |
1. What core values and beliefs led to the American Revolution and the writing of the Articles of Confederation? How do these values and beliefs affect American politics today?
2. Was Britain truly depriving colonists of their natural rights? Explain your reasoning.
3. Do the Constitution and the Bill of Rights protect the life, liberty, and property of all Americans? Why or why not?
4. Was the Bill of Rights a necessary addition to the Constitution? Defend your answer.
5. One of the chief areas of compromise at the Constitutional Convention was the issue of slavery. Should delegates who opposed slavery have been willing to compromise? Why or why not?
6. Is the federal government too powerful? Should states have more power? If so, what specific power(s) should states have?
7. What new amendments should be added to the Constitution? Why?
2.11: Suggestions for Further Study
Appleby, Joyce. 1976. “Liberalism and the American Revolution.” The New England Quarterly 49 (March): 3–26.
Bailyn, Bernard. 1967. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Massachusetts: Belknap Press.
Beeman, Richard. 2010. Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution. New York: Random House.
Cook, Don. 1995. The Long Fuse: How England Lost the American Colonies, 1760–1785. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.
Drinker Bowen, Catherine. 1967. Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention, May to September 1787. Boston: Little, Brown.
Ellis, Joseph. 2015. The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783–1789. New York: Knopf.
Grant, Ruth W. 1991. John Locke’s Liberalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Knollenberg, Bernard. 1975. Growth of the American Revolution: 1766–1775. New York: Free Press.
Lipsky, Seth. 2011. The Citizen’s Constitution: An Annotated Guide. New York: Basic Books.
Locke, John. 1689. A Letter Concerning Toleration. Translated by William Popple. http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/e...toleration.pdf
Locke, John. 1690. Two Treatises of Government. http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/e...government.pdf
Maier, Pauline. 2010. Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787–1788. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Morgan, Edward S. 1975. American Slavery, American Freedom. New York: W. Norton and Company.
Szatmary, David P. 1980. Shays’ Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
Urofsky, Melvin I., and Paul Finkelman. 2011. A March of Liberty: A Constitutional History of the United States. Volume I: From the Founding to 1890. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wood, Gordon. 1998. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
2.12: References
1. Nathaniel Philbrick. 2006. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. New York: Penguin, 41.
2. François Furstenberg. 2008. “The Significance of the Trans-Appalachian Frontier in Atlantic History,” The American Historical Review 113 (3): 654.
3. Bernhard Knollenberg. 1975. Growth of the American Revolution: 1766-1775. New York: Free Press, 95-96.
4. Stuart Bruchey. 1990. Enterprise: The Dynamic Economy of a Free People. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 223.
5. Joseph J. Ellis. 2015. The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789. New York: Knopf, 92.
6. David P. Szatmary. 1980. Shays' Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 84-86, 102-104.
7. U.S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. 1790. Statistical Abstract of the United States. Washington, DC: Department of Commerce.
8. U.S. Const. art. I, § 9.
9. U.S. Const. art. IV, § 2.
10. R. E. Neustadt. 1960. Presidential Power and the Politics of Leadership. New York: Wiley, 33.
11. Pauline Maier. 2010. Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788. New York: Simon & Schuster, 464.
12. Maier, Ratification, 431.
13. Letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, March 15, 1789, https://www.gwu.edu/~ffcp/exhibit/p7/p7_1text.html.
14. Isaac Krannick. 1999. “The Great National Discussion: The Discourse of Politics in 1787.” In What Did the Constitution Mean to Early Americans? ed. Edward Countryman. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 52.
15. Krannick, Great National Discussion, 42-43.
16. Krannick, Great National Discussion, 42.
17. Evelyn C. Fink and William H. Riker. 1989. “The Strategy of Ratification.” In The Federalist Papers and the New Institutionalism, eds. Bernard Grofman and Donald Wittman. New York: Agathon, 229.
18. Fink and Riker, Strategy of Ratification, 221.
19. “Charlotte Forten Grimké House,” National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/places/the-charl...imke-house.htm (June 1, 2021).
20. “Nine Poems by Charlotte Forten Grimké,” Beltway Poetry Quarterly, https://www.beltwaypoetry.com/grimke...rlotte-forten/ (June 1, 2021). | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/02%3A_The_Constitution_and_Its_Origins/2.10%3A_Critical_Thinking_Questions.txt |
Federalism figures prominently in the U.S. political system. Specifically, the federal design spelled out in the Constitution divides powers between two levels of government—the states and the federal government—and creates a mechanism for them to check and balance one another. As an institutional design, federalism both safeguards state interests and creates a strong union led by a capable central government.
American federalism also seeks to balance the forces of decentralization and centralization. We see decentralization when we cross state lines and encounter different taxation levels, welfare eligibility requirements, and voting regulations, to name just a few. Centralization is apparent in the fact that the federal government is the only entity permitted to print money, to challenge the legality of state laws, or to employ money grants and mandates to shape state actions. Colorful billboards with simple messages may greet us at state borders (Figure 3.1), but behind them lies a complex and evolving federal design that has structured relationships between states and the federal government since the late 1700s.
What specific powers and responsibilities are granted to the federal and state governments? How does our process of government keep these separate governing entities in balance? To answer these questions and more, this chapter traces the origins, evolution, and functioning of the American system of federalism, as well as its advantages and disadvantages for citizens.
3.02: The Divisions of Power
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Explain the concept of federalism
• Discuss the constitutional logic of federalism
• Identify the powers and responsibilities of federal, state, and local governments
Modern democracies divide governmental power in two general ways; some, like the United States, use a combination of both structures. The first and more common mechanism shares power among three branches of government—the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. The second, federalism, apportions power between two levels of government: national and subnational. In the United States, the term federal government refers to the government at the national level, while the term states means governments at the subnational level.
Federalism Defined and Contrasted
Federalism is an institutional arrangement that creates two relatively autonomous levels of government, each possessing the capacity to act directly on behalf of the people with the authority granted to it by the national constitution.1 Although today’s federal systems vary in design, five structural characteristics are common to the United States and other federal systems around the world, including Germany and Mexico.
First, all federal systems establish two levels of government, with both levels being elected by the people and each level assigned different functions. The national government is responsible for handling matters that affect the country as a whole, for example, defending the nation against foreign threats and promoting national economic prosperity. Subnational, or state governments, are responsible for matters that lie within their regions, which include ensuring the well-being of their people by administering education, health care, public safety, and other public services. By definition, a system like this requires that different levels of government cooperate, because the institutions at each level form an interacting network. In the U.S. federal system, all national matters are handled by the federal government, which is led by the president and members of Congress, all of whom are elected by voters across the country. All matters at the subnational level are the responsibility of the fifty states, each headed by an elected governor and legislature. Thus, there is a separation of functions between the federal and state governments, and voters choose the leader at each level.2
The second characteristic common to all federal systems is a written national constitution that cannot be changed without the substantial consent of subnational governments. In the American federal system, the twenty-seven amendments added to the Constitution since its adoption were the result of an arduous process that required approval by two-thirds of both houses of Congress and three-fourths of the states. The main advantage of this supermajority requirement is that no changes to the Constitution can occur unless there is broad support within Congress and among states. The potential drawback is that numerous national amendment initiatives—such as the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which aims to guarantee equal rights regardless of sex—have failed because they cannot garner sufficient consent among members of Congress or, in the case of the ERA, the states. The ERA appeared to gain new life in 2020 as a thirty-eighth state (Virginia) formally voted to ratify the amendment. Although the amendment's original ratification deadline was in 1982, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation to extend the deadline; however, the Senate has not taken up the measure.3
Third, the constitutions of countries with federal systems formally allocate legislative, judicial, and executive authority to the two levels of government in such a way as to ensure each level some degree of autonomy from the other. Under the U.S. Constitution, the president assumes executive power, Congress exercises legislative powers, and the federal courts (e.g., U.S. district courts, appellate courts, and the Supreme Court) assume judicial powers. In each of the fifty states, a governor assumes executive authority, a state legislature makes laws, and state-level courts (e.g., trial courts, intermediate appellate courts, and supreme courts) possess judicial authority.
While each level of government is somewhat independent of the others, a great deal of interaction occurs among them. In fact, the ability of the federal and state governments to achieve their objectives often depends on the cooperation of the other level of government. For example, the federal government’s efforts to ensure homeland security are bolstered by the involvement of law enforcement agents working at local and state levels. On the other hand, the ability of states to provide their residents with public education and health care is enhanced by the federal government’s financial assistance.
Another common characteristic of federalism around the world is that national courts commonly resolve disputes between levels and departments of government. In the United States, conflicts between states and the federal government are adjudicated by federal courts, with the U.S. Supreme Court being the final arbiter. The resolution of such disputes can preserve the autonomy of one level of government, as illustrated recently when the Supreme Court ruled that states cannot interfere with the federal government’s actions relating to immigration.4 In other instances, a Supreme Court ruling can erode that autonomy, as demonstrated in the 1940s when, in United States v. Wrightwood Dairy Co., the Court enabled the federal government to regulate commercial activities that occurred within states, a function previously handled exclusively by the states.5
Finally, subnational governments are always represented in the upper house of the national legislature, enabling regional interests to influence national lawmaking.6 In the American federal system, the U.S. Senate functions as a territorial body by representing the fifty states: Each state elects two senators to ensure equal representation regardless of state population differences. Thus, federal laws are shaped in part by state interests, which senators convey to the federal policymaking process.
Link to Learning
The governmental design of the United States is unusual; most countries do not have a federal structure. Aside from the United States, how many other countries have a federal system?
Division of power can also occur via a unitary structure or confederation (Figure 3.2). In contrast to federalism, a unitary system makes subnational governments dependent on the national government, where significant authority is concentrated. Before the late 1990s, the United Kingdom’s unitary system was centralized to the extent that the national government held the most important levers of power. Since then, power has been gradually decentralized through a process of devolution, leading to the creation of regional governments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland as well as the delegation of specific responsibilities to them. Other democratic countries with unitary systems, such as France, Japan, and Sweden, have followed a similar path of decentralization.
In a confederation, authority is decentralized, and the central government’s ability to act depends on the consent of the subnational governments. Under the Articles of Confederation (the first constitution of the United States), states were sovereign and powerful while the national government was subordinate and weak. Because states were reluctant to give up any of their power, the national government lacked authority in the face of challenges such as servicing the war debt, ending commercial disputes among states, negotiating trade agreements with other countries, and addressing popular uprisings that were sweeping the country. As the brief American experience with confederation clearly shows, the main drawback with this system of government is that it maximizes regional self-rule at the expense of effective national governance.
Federalism and the Constitution
The Constitution contains several provisions that direct the functioning of U.S. federalism. Some delineate the scope of national and state power, while others restrict it. The remaining provisions shape relationships among the states and between the states and the federal government.
The enumerated powers of the national legislature are found in Article I, Section 8. These powers define the jurisdictional boundaries within which the federal government has authority. In seeking not to replay the problems that plagued the young country under the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution’s framers granted Congress specific powers that ensured its authority over national and foreign affairs. To provide for the general welfare of the populace, it can tax, borrow money, regulate interstate and foreign commerce, and protect property rights, for example. To provide for the common defense of the people, the federal government can raise and support armies and declare war. Furthermore, national integration and unity are fostered with the government’s powers over the coining of money, naturalization, postal services, and other responsibilities.
The last clause of Article I, Section 8, commonly referred to as the elastic clause or the necessary and proper cause, enables Congress “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying” out its constitutional responsibilities. While the enumerated powers define the policy areas in which the national government has authority, the elastic clause allows it to create the legal means to fulfill those responsibilities. However, the open-ended construction of this clause has enabled the national government to expand its authority beyond what is specified in the Constitution, a development also motivated by the expansive interpretation of the commerce clause, which empowers the federal government to regulate interstate economic transactions.
The powers of the state governments were never listed in the original Constitution. The consensus among the framers was that states would retain any powers not prohibited by the Constitution or delegated to the national government.7 However, when it came time to ratify the Constitution, a number of states requested that an amendment be added explicitly identifying the reserved powers of the states. What these Anti-Federalists sought was further assurance that the national government’s capacity to act directly on behalf of the people would be restricted, which the first ten amendments (Bill of Rights) provided. The Tenth Amendment affirms the states’ reserved powers: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Indeed, state constitutions had bills of rights, which the first Congress used as the source for the first ten amendments to the Constitution.
Some of the states’ reserved powers are no longer exclusively within state domain, however. For example, since the 1940s, the federal government has also engaged in administering health, safety, income security, education, and welfare to state residents. The boundary between intrastate and interstate commerce has become indefinable as a result of broad interpretation of the commerce clause. Shared and overlapping powers have become an integral part of contemporary U.S. federalism. These concurrent powers range from taxing, borrowing, and making and enforcing laws to establishing court systems (Figure 3.3).8
Article I, Sections 9 and 10, along with several constitutional amendments, lay out the restrictions on federal and state authority. The most important restriction Section 9 places on the national government prevents measures that cause the deprivation of personal liberty. Specifically, the government cannot suspend the writ of habeas corpus, which enables someone in custody to petition a judge to determine whether that person’s detention is legal; pass a bill of attainder, a legislative action declaring someone guilty without a trial; or enact an ex post facto law, which criminalizes an act retroactively. The Bill of Rights affirms and expands these constitutional restrictions, ensuring that the government cannot encroach on personal freedoms.
The states are also constrained by the Constitution. Article I, Section 10, prohibits the states from entering into treaties with other countries, coining money, and levying taxes on imports and exports. Like the federal government, the states cannot violate personal freedoms by suspending the writ of habeas corpus, passing bills of attainder, or enacting ex post facto laws. Furthermore, the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, prohibits the states from denying citizens the rights to which they are entitled by the Constitution, due process of law, or the equal protection of the laws. Lastly, three civil rights amendments—the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-Sixth—prevent both the states and the federal government from abridging citizens’ right to vote based on race, sex, and age. This topic remains controversial because states have not always ensured equal protection.
The supremacy clause in Article VI of the Constitution regulates relationships between the federal and state governments by declaring that the Constitution and federal law are the supreme law of the land. This means that if a state law clashes with a federal law found to be within the national government’s constitutional authority, the federal law prevails. The intent of the supremacy clause is not to subordinate the states to the federal government; rather, it affirms that one body of laws binds the country. In fact, all national and state government officials are bound by oath to uphold the Constitution regardless of the offices they hold. Yet enforcement is not always that simple. In the case of marijuana use, which the federal government defines to be illegal, twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have nevertheless established medical marijuana laws, others have decriminalized its recreational use, and four states have completely legalized it. The federal government could act in this area if it wanted to. For example, in addition to the legalization issue, there is the question of how to treat the money from marijuana sales, which the national government designates as drug money and regulates under laws regarding its deposit in banks.
Various constitutional provisions govern state-to-state relations. Article IV, Section 1, referred to as the full faith and credit clause or the comity clause, requires the states to accept court decisions, public acts, and contracts of other states. Thus, an adoption certificate or driver’s license issued in one state is valid in any other state. The movement for marriage equality has put the full faith and credit clause to the test in recent decades. In light of Baehr v. Lewin, a 1993 ruling in which the Hawaii Supreme Court asserted that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, a number of states became worried that they would be required to recognize those marriage certificates.9 To address this concern, Congress passed and President Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act(DOMA) in 1996. The law declared that “No state (or other political subdivision within the United States) need recognize a marriage between persons of the same sex, even if the marriage was concluded or recognized in another state.” The law also barred federal benefits for same-sex partners.
DOMA clearly made the topic a state matter. It denoted a choice for states, which led many states to take up the policy issue of marriage equality. Scores of states considered legislation and ballot initiatives on the question. The federal courts took up the issue with zeal after the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Windsor struck down the part of DOMA that outlawed federal benefits.10 That move was followed by upwards of forty federal court decisions that upheld marriage equality in particular states. In 2014, the Supreme Court decided not to hear several key case appeals from a variety of states, all of which were brought by opponents of marriage equality who had lost in the federal courts. The outcome of not hearing these cases was that federal court decisions in four states were affirmed, which, when added to other states in the same federal circuit districts, brought the total number of states permitting same-sex marriage to thirty.11 Then, in 2015, the Obergefell v. Hodges case had a sweeping effect when the Supreme Court clearly identified a constitutional right to marriage based on the Fourteenth Amendment.12
The privileges and immunities clause of Article IV asserts that states are prohibited from discriminating against out-of-staters by denying them such guarantees as access to courts, legal protection, property rights, and travel rights. The clause has not been interpreted to mean there cannot be any difference in the way a state treats residents and non-residents. For example, individuals cannot vote in a state in which they do not reside, tuition at state universities is higher for out-of-state residents, and in some cases individuals who have recently become residents of a state must wait a certain amount of time to be eligible for social welfare benefits. Another constitutional provision prohibits states from establishing trade restrictions on goods produced in other states. However, a state can tax out-of-state goods sold within its borders as long as state-made goods are taxed at the same level.
The Distribution of Finances
Federal, state, and local governments depend on different sources of revenue to finance their annual expenditures. In 2014, total revenue (or receipts) reached \$3.2 trillion for the federal government, \$1.7 trillion for the states, and \$1.2 trillion for local governments.13 Two important developments have fundamentally changed the allocation of revenue since the early 1900s. First, the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913 authorized Congress to impose income taxes without apportioning it among the states on the basis of population, a burdensome provision that Article I, Section 9, had imposed on the national government.14 With this change, the federal government’s ability to raise revenue significantly increased and so did its ability to spend.
The second development regulates federal grants, that is, transfers of federal money to state and local governments. These transfers, which do not have to be repaid, are designed to support the activities of the recipient governments, but also to encourage them to pursue federal policy objectives they might not otherwise adopt. The expansion of the federal government’s spending power has enabled it to transfer more grant money to lower government levels, which has accounted for an increasing share of their total revenue.15
The sources of revenue for federal, state, and local governments are detailed in Figure 3.4. Although the data reflect 2013 results, the patterns we see in the figure give us a good idea of how governments have funded their activities in recent years. For the federal government, 47 percent of 2013 revenue came from individual income taxes and 34 percent from payroll taxes, which combine Social Security tax and Medicare tax.
For state governments, 50 percent of revenue came from taxes, while 30 percent consisted of federal grants. Sales tax—which includes taxes on purchased food, clothing, alcohol, amusements, insurance, motor fuels, tobacco products, and public utilities, for example—accounted for about 47 percent of total tax revenue, and individual income taxes represented roughly 35 percent. Revenue from service charges (e.g., tuition revenue from public universities and fees for hospital-related services) accounted for 11 percent.
The tax structure of states varies. Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming do not have individual income taxes. Figure 3.5 illustrates yet another difference: Fuel tax as a percentage of total tax revenue is much higher in South Dakota and West Virginia than in Alaska and Hawaii. However, most states have done little to prevent the erosion of the fuel tax’s share of their total tax revenue between 2007 and 2014 (notice that for many states the dark blue dots for 2014 are to the left of the light blue numbers for 2007). Fuel tax revenue is typically used to finance state highway transportation projects, although some states do use it to fund non-transportation projects.
The most important sources of revenue for local governments in 2013 were taxes, federal and state grants, and service charges. For local governments the property tax, a levy on residential and commercial real estate, was the most important source of tax revenue, accounting for about 74 percent of the total. Federal and state grants accounted for 37 percent of local government revenue. State grants made up 87 percent of total local grants. Charges for hospital-related services, sewage and solid-waste management, public city university tuition, and airport services are important sources of general revenue for local governments.
Intergovernmental grants are important sources of revenue for both state and local governments. When economic times are good, such grants help states, cities, municipalities, and townships carry out their regular functions. However, during hard economic times, such as the Great Recession of 2007–2009, intergovernmental transfers provide much-needed fiscal relief as the revenue streams of state and local governments dry up. During the Great Recession, tax receipts dropped as business activities slowed, consumer spending dropped, and family incomes decreased due to layoffs or work-hour reductions. To offset the adverse effects of the recession on the states and local governments, federal grants increased by roughly 33 percent during this period.16
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–2021 ushered in a massive mobilization of activity and coordination at and between various levels of U.S. government in the hope of defeating the deadly virus that overwhelmed hospitals and led to nearly 600,000 deaths nationwide as well as a bleeding of state and local government jobs. The amount of federal funding to the states eclipsed the levels provided during the Great Recession. The \$1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act passed by Congress and signed by President Biden included \$350 billion in direct aid to state, local, and tribal governments.17 Furthermore, earlier in the pandemic, the CARES Act, signed by President Trump, established the \$150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund to aid these same governments. Many other federal funding flows occurred outside these two packages, including support for vaccinations and the vaccine rollout across the nation.18
How are the revenues generated by our tax dollars, fees we pay to use public services and obtain licenses, and monies from other sources put to use by the different levels of government? A good starting point to gain insight on this question as it relates to the federal government is Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution. Recall, for instance, that the Constitution assigns the federal government various powers that allow it to affect the nation as a whole. A look at the federal budget in 2019 (Figure 3.6) shows that the three largest spending categories were Social Security (24 percent of the total budget); Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and marketplace subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (24 percent); and defense and international security assistance (18 percent). The rest was divided among categories such as safety net programs (11 percent), including the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, unemployment insurance, food stamps, and other low-income assistance programs; interest on federal debt (7 percent); benefits for federal retirees and veterans (8 percent); and transportation infrastructure (3 percent).19 It is clear from the 2019 federal budget that providing for the general welfare and national defense consumes much of the government’s resources—not just its revenue, but also its administrative capacity and labor power.
Figure 3.7 compares recent spending activities of local and state governments. Educational expenditures constitute a major category for both. However, whereas the states spend comparatively more than local governments on university education, local governments spend even more on elementary and secondary education. That said, nationwide, state funding for public higher education has declined as a percentage of university revenues; this is primarily because states have taken in lower amounts of sales taxes as internet commerce has increased. Local governments allocate more funds to police protection, fire protection, housing and community development, and public utilities such as water, sewage, and electricity. And while state governments allocate comparatively more funds to public welfare programs, such as health care, income support, and highways, both local and state governments spend roughly similar amounts on judicial and legal services and correctional services. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/03%3A_American_Federalism/3.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Describe how federalism has evolved in the United States
• Compare different conceptions of federalism
The Constitution sketches a federal framework that aims to balance the forces of decentralized and centralized governance in general terms; it does not flesh out standard operating procedures that say precisely how the states and federal governments are to handle all policy contingencies imaginable. Therefore, officials at the state and national levels have had some room to maneuver as they operate within the Constitution’s federal design. This has led to changes in the configuration of federalism over time, changes corresponding to different historical phases that capture distinct balances between state and federal authority.
The Struggle Between National Power and State Power
As George Washington’s secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795, Alexander Hamilton championed legislative efforts to create a publicly chartered bank. For Hamilton, the establishment of the Bank of the United States was fully within Congress’s authority, and he hoped the bank would foster economic development, print and circulate paper money, and provide loans to the government. Although Thomas Jefferson, Washington’s secretary of state, staunchly opposed Hamilton’s plan on the constitutional grounds that the national government had no authority to create such an instrument, Hamilton managed to convince the reluctant president to sign the legislation.20
When the bank’s charter expired in 1811, Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans prevailed in blocking its renewal. However, the fiscal hardships that plagued the government during the War of 1812, coupled with the fragility of the country’s financial system, convinced Congress and then-president James Madison to create the Second Bank of the United States in 1816. Many states rejected the Second Bank, arguing that the national government was infringing upon the states’ constitutional jurisdiction.
A political showdown between Maryland and the national government emerged when James McCulloch, an agent for the Baltimore branch of the Second Bank, refused to pay a tax that Maryland had imposed on all out-of-state chartered banks. The standoff raised two constitutional questions: Did Congress have the authority to charter a national bank? Were states allowed to tax federal property? In McCulloch v. Maryland, Chief Justice John Marshall (Figure 3.8) argued that Congress could create a national bank even though the Constitution did not expressly authorize it.21 Under the necessary and proper clause of Article I, Section 8, the Supreme Court asserted that Congress could establish “all means which are appropriate” to fulfill “the legitimate ends” of the Constitution. In other words, the bank was an appropriate instrument that enabled the national government to carry out several of its enumerated powers, such as regulating interstate commerce, collecting taxes, and borrowing money.
This ruling established the doctrine of implied powers, granting Congress a vast source of discretionary power to achieve its constitutional responsibilities. The Supreme Court also sided with the federal government on the issue of whether states could tax federal property. Under the supremacy clause of Article VI, legitimate national laws trump conflicting state laws. As the court observed, “the government of the Union, though limited in its powers, is supreme within its sphere of action and its laws, when made in pursuance of the constitution, form the supreme law of the land.” Maryland’s action violated national supremacy because “the power to tax is the power to destroy.” This second ruling established the principle of national supremacy, which prohibits states from meddling in the lawful activities of the national government.
Defining the scope of national power was the subject of another landmark Supreme Court decision in 1824. In Gibbons v. Ogden, the court had to interpret the commerce clause of Article I, Section 8; specifically, it had to determine whether the federal government had the sole authority to regulate the licensing of steamboats operating between New York and New Jersey.22 Aaron Ogden, who had obtained an exclusive license from New York State to operate steamboat ferries between New York City and New Jersey, sued Thomas Gibbons, who was operating ferries along the same route under a coasting license issued by the federal government. Gibbons lost in New York state courts and appealed. Chief Justice Marshall delivered a two-part ruling in favor of Gibbons that strengthened the power of the national government. First, interstate commerce was interpreted broadly to mean “commercial intercourse” among states, thus allowing Congress to regulate navigation. Second, because the federal Licensing Act of 1793, which regulated coastal commerce, was a constitutional exercise of Congress’s authority under the commerce clause, federal law trumped the New York State license-monopoly law that had granted Ogden an exclusive steamboat operating license. As Marshall pointed out, “the acts of New York must yield to the law of Congress.”23
Various states railed against the nationalization of power that had been going on since the late 1700s. When President John Adams signed the Sedition Act in 1798, which made it a crime to speak openly against the government, the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures passed resolutions declaring the act null on the grounds that they retained the discretion to follow national laws. In effect, these resolutions articulated the legal reasoning underpinning the doctrine of nullification—that states had the right to reject national laws they deemed unconstitutional.24
A nullification crisis emerged in the 1830s over President Andrew Jackson’s tariff acts of 1828 and 1832. Led by John Calhoun, President Jackson’s vice president, nullifiers argued that high tariffs on imported goods benefited northern manufacturing interests while disadvantaging economies in the South. South Carolina passed an Ordinance of Nullification declaring both tariff acts null and void and threatened to leave the Union. The federal government responded by enacting the Force Bill in 1833, authorizing President Jacksonto use military force against states that challenged federal tariff laws. The prospect of military action coupled with the passage of the Compromise Tariff Act of 1833 (which lowered tariffs over time) led South Carolina to back off, ending the nullification crisis.
The ultimate showdown between national and state authority came during the Civil War. Prior to the conflict, in Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court ruled that the national government lacked the authority to ban slavery in the territories.25 But the election of President Abraham Lincoln in 1860 led eleven southern states to secede from the United States because they believed the new president would challenge the institution of slavery. What was initially a conflict to preserve the Union became a conflict to end slavery when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, freeing all slaves in the rebellious states. The defeat of the South had a huge impact on the balance of power between the states and the national government in two important ways. First, the Union victory put an end to the right of states to secede and to challenge legitimate national laws. Second, Congress imposed several conditions for readmitting former Confederate states into the Union; among them was ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. In sum, after the Civil War the power balance shifted toward the national government, a movement that had begun several decades before with McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) and Gibbons v. Odgen (1824).
The period between 1819 and the 1860s demonstrated that the national government sought to establish its role within the newly created federal design, which in turn often provoked the states to resist as they sought to protect their interests. With the exception of the Civil War, the Supreme Court settled the power struggles between the states and national government. From a historical perspective, the national supremacy principle introduced during this period did not so much narrow the states’ scope of constitutional authority as restrict their encroachment on national powers.26
Dual Federalism
The late 1870s ushered in a new phase in the evolution of U.S. federalism. Under dual federalism, the states and national government exercise exclusive authority in distinctly delineated spheres of jurisdiction. Like the layers of a cake, the levels of government do not blend with one another but rather are clearly defined. Two factors contributed to the emergence of this conception of federalism. First, several Supreme Court rulings blocked attempts by both state and federal governments to step outside their jurisdictional boundaries. Second, the prevailing economic philosophy at the time loathed government interference in the process of industrial development.
Industrialization changed the socioeconomic landscape of the United States. One of its adverse effects was the concentration of market power. Because there was no national regulatory supervision to ensure fairness in market practices, collusive behavior among powerful firms emerged in several industries.27 To curtail widespread anticompetitive practices in the railroad industry, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, which created the Interstate Commerce Commission. Three years later, national regulatory capacity was broadened by the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which made it illegal to monopolize or attempt to monopolize and conspire in restraining commerce (Figure 3.9). In the early stages of industrial capitalism, federal regulations were focused for the most part on promoting market competition rather than on addressing the social dislocations resulting from market operations, something the government began to tackle in the 1930s.28
The new federal regulatory regime was dealt a legal blow early in its existence. In 1895, in United States v. E. C. Knight, the Supreme Court ruled that the national government lacked the authority to regulate manufacturing.29 The case came about when the government, using its regulatory power under the Sherman Act, attempted to override American Sugar’s purchase of four sugar refineries, which would give the company a commanding share of the industry. Distinguishing between commerce among states and the production of goods, the court argued that the national government’s regulatory authority applied only to commercial activities. If manufacturing activities fell within the purview of the commerce clause of the Constitution, then “comparatively little of business operations would be left for state control,” the court argued.
In the late 1800s, some states attempted to regulate working conditions. For example, New York State passed the Bakeshop Act in 1897, which prohibited bakery employees from working more than sixty hours in a week. In Lochner v. New York, the Supreme Court ruled this state regulation that capped work hours unconstitutional, on the grounds that it violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.30 In other words, the right to sell and buy labor is a “liberty of the individual” safeguarded by the Constitution, the court asserted. The federal government also took up the issue of working conditions, but that case resulted in the same outcome as in the Lochner case.31
Cooperative Federalism
The Great Depression of the 1930s brought economic hardships the nation had never witnessed before (Figure 3.10). Between 1929 and 1933, the national unemployment rate reached 25 percent, industrial output dropped by half, stock market assets lost more than half their value, thousands of banks went out of business, and the gross domestic product shrunk by one-quarter.32 Given the magnitude of the economic depression, there was pressure on the national government to coordinate a robust national response along with the states.
Cooperative federalism was born of necessity and lasted well into the twentieth century as the national and state governments each found it beneficial. Under this model, both levels of government coordinated their actions to solve national problems, such as the Great Depression and the civil rights struggle of the following decades. In contrast to dual federalism, it erodes the jurisdictional boundaries between the states and national government, leading to a blending of layers as in a marble cake. The era of cooperative federalism contributed to the gradual incursion of national authority into the jurisdictional domain of the states, as well as the expansion of the national government’s power in concurrent policy areas.33
The New Deal programs President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed as a means to tackle the Great Depression ran afoul of the dual-federalism mindset of the justices on the Supreme Court in the 1930s. The court struck down key pillars of the New Deal—the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Agricultural Adjustment Act, for example—on the grounds that the federal government was operating in matters that were within the purview of the states. The court’s obstructionist position infuriated Roosevelt, leading him in 1937 to propose a court-packing plan that would add one new justice for each one over the age of seventy, thus allowing the president to make a maximum of six new appointments. Before Congress took action on the proposal, the Supreme Court began leaning in support of the New Deal as Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes and Justice Owen Roberts changed their view on federalism.34
In National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) v. Jones and Laughlin Steel,35 for instance, the Supreme Court ruled the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 constitutional, asserting that Congress can use its authority under the commerce clause to regulate both manufacturing activities and labor-management relations. The New Deal changed the relationship Americans had with the national government. Before the Great Depression, the government offered little in terms of financial aid, social benefits, and economic rights. After the New Deal, it provided old-age pensions (Social Security), unemployment insurance, agricultural subsidies, protections for organizing in the workplace, and a variety of other public services created during Roosevelt’s administration.
In the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson’s administration expanded the national government’s role in society even more. Medicaid (which provides medical assistance to the indigent), Medicare (which provides health insurance to the elderly and disabled), and school nutrition programs were created. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965), the Higher Education Act (1965), and the Head Start preschool program (1965) were established to expand educational opportunities and equality (Figure 3.11). The Clean Air Act (1965), the Highway Safety Act (1966), and the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (1966) promoted environmental and consumer protection. Finally, laws were passed to promote urban renewal, public housing development, and affordable housing. In addition to these Great Society programs, the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965) gave the federal government effective tools to promote civil rights equality across the country.
While the era of cooperative federalism witnessed a broadening of federal powers in concurrent and state policy domains, it is also the era of a deepening coordination between the states and the federal government in Washington. Nowhere is this clearer than with respect to the social welfare and social insurance programs created during the New Deal and Great Society eras, most of which are administered by both state and federal authorities and are jointly funded. The Social Security Act of 1935, which created federal subsidies for state-administered programs for the elderly; people with handicaps; dependent mothers; and children, gave state and local officials wide discretion over eligibility and benefit levels. The unemployment insurance program, also created by the Social Security Act, requires states to provide jobless benefits, but it allows them significant latitude to decide the level of tax to impose on businesses in order to fund the program as well as the duration and replacement rate of unemployment benefits. A similar multilevel division of labor governs Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance.36
Thus, the era of cooperative federalism left two lasting attributes on federalism in the United States. First, a nationalization of politics emerged as a result of federal legislative activism aimed at addressing national problems such as marketplace inefficiencies, social and political inequality, and poverty. The nationalization process expanded the size of the federal administrative apparatus and increased the flow of federal grants to state and local authorities, which have helped offset the financial costs of maintaining a host of New Deal- and Great Society–era programs. The second lasting attribute is the flexibility that states and local authorities were given in the implementation of federal social welfare programs. One consequence of administrative flexibility, however, is that it has led to cross-state differences in the levels of benefits and coverage.37
New Federalism
During the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon (1969–1974) and Ronald Reagan (1981–1989), attempts were made to reverse the process of nationalization—that is, to restore states’ prominence in policy areas into which the federal government had moved in the past. New federalism is premised on the idea that the decentralization of policies enhances administrative efficiency, reduces overall public spending, and improves policy outcomes. During Nixon’s administration, general revenue sharing programs were created that distributed funds to the state and local governments with minimal restrictions on how the money was spent. The election of Ronald Reagan heralded the advent of a “devolution revolution” in U.S. federalism, in which the president pledged to return authority to the states according to the Constitution. In the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, congressional leaders together with President Reagan consolidated numerous federal grant programs related to social welfare and reformulated them in order to give state and local administrators greater discretion in using federal funds.38
However, Reagan’s track record in promoting new federalism was inconsistent. This was partly due to the fact that the president’s devolution agenda met some opposition from Democrats in Congress, moderate Republicans, and interest groups, preventing him from making further advances on that front. For example, his efforts to completely devolve Aid to Families With Dependent Children (a New Deal-era program) and food stamps (a Great Society-era program) to the states were rejected by members of Congress, who feared states would underfund both programs, and by members of the National Governors’ Association, who believed the proposal would be too costly for states. Reagan terminated general revenue sharing in 1986.39
Several Supreme Court rulings also promoted new federalism by hemming in the scope of the national government’s power, especially under the commerce clause. For example, in United States v. Lopez, the court struck down the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, which banned gun possession in school zones.40 It argued that the regulation in question did not “substantively affect interstate commerce.” The ruling ended a nearly sixty-year period in which the court had used a broad interpretation of the commerce clause that by the 1960s allowed it to regulate numerous local commercial activities.41
However, many would say that the years since the 9/11 attacks have swung the pendulum back in the direction of central federal power. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security federalized disaster response power in Washington, and the Transportation Security Administration was created to federalize airport security. Broad new federal policies and mandates have also been carried out in the form of the Faith-Based Initiative and No Child Left Behind (during the George W. Bush administration) and the Affordable Care Act (during Barack Obama’s administration).
Finding a Middle Ground
Cooperative Federalism versus New Federalism
Morton Grodzins coined the expression "marble-cake federalism" in the 1950s while conducting research on the evolution of American federalism as a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. Until then most scholars had thought of federalism as a layer cake, but according to Grodzins the 1930s ushered in “marble-cake federalism” (Figure 3.12): “The American form of government is often, but erroneously, symbolized by a three-layer cake. A far more accurate image is the rainbow or marble cake, characterized by an inseparable mingling of differently colored ingredients, the colors appearing in vertical and diagonal strands and unexpected whirls. As colors are mixed in the marble cake, so functions are mixed in the American federal system.”42
Cooperative federalism has several merits:
• Because state and local governments have varying fiscal capacities, the national government’s involvement in state activities such as education, health, and social welfare is necessary to ensure some degree of uniformity in the provision of public services to citizens in richer and poorer states.
• The problem of collective action, which dissuades state and local authorities from raising regulatory standards for fear they will be disadvantaged as others lower theirs, is resolved by requiring state and local authorities to meet minimum federal standards (e.g., minimum wage and air quality).
• Federal assistance is necessary to ensure state and local programs that generate positive externalities are maintained. For example, one state’s environmental regulations impose higher fuel prices on its residents, but the externality of the cleaner air they produce benefits neighboring states. Without the federal government’s support, this state and others like it would underfund such programs.
New federalism has advantages as well:
• Because of differences among states, one-size-fits-all features of federal laws are suboptimal. Decentralization accommodates the diversity that exists across states.
• By virtue of being closer to citizens, state and local authorities are better than federal agencies at discerning the public’s needs.
• Decentralized federalism fosters a marketplace of innovative policy ideas as states compete against each other to minimize administrative costs and maximize policy output.
Which model of federalism do you think works best for the United States? Why?
Link to Learning
The leading international journal devoted to the practical and theoretical study of federalism is called Publius: The Journal of Federalism. Find out where its name comes from. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/03%3A_American_Federalism/3.03%3A__The_Evolution_of_American_Federalism.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Explain how federal intergovernmental grants have evolved over time
• Identify the types of federal intergovernmental grants
• Describe the characteristics of federal unfunded mandates
The national government’s ability to achieve its objectives often requires the participation of state and local governments. Intergovernmental grants offer positive financial inducements to get states to work toward selected national goals. A grant is commonly likened to a “carrot” to the extent that it is designed to entice the recipient to do something. On the other hand, unfunded mandates impose federal requirements on state and local authorities. Mandates are typically backed by the threat of penalties for non-compliance and provide little to no compensation for the costs of implementation. Thus, given its coercive nature, a mandate is commonly likened to a “stick.”
Grants
The national government has used grants to influence state actions as far back as the Articles of Confederation when it provided states with land grants. In the first half of the 1800s, land grants were the primary means by which the federal government supported the states. Millions of acres of federal land were donated to support road, railroad, bridge, and canal construction projects, all of which were instrumental in piecing together a national transportation system to facilitate migration, interstate commerce, postal mail service, and movement of military people and equipment. Numerous universities and colleges across the country, such as Oklahoma State University and President Biden's alma mater, the University of Delaware, are land-grant institutions because their campuses were built on land donated by the federal government or by using funding secured by the sale of donated federal land. In the segregated South, black land grant universities were established in 1890, including Florida A&M University and Prairie View A&M University (Texas).43 At the turn of the twentieth century, cash grants replaced land grants as the main form of federal intergovernmental transfers and have become a central part of modern federalism.44
Link to Learning
This video about the creation of Iowa State University shows how land grant universities were developed to bring higher education to the people.
Federal cash grants do come with strings attached; the national government has an interest in seeing that public monies are used for policy activities that advance national objectives. Categorical grants are federal transfers formulated to limit recipients’ discretion in the use of funds and subject them to strict administrative criteria that guide project selection, performance, and financial oversight, among other things. These grants also often require some commitment of matching funds. Medicaid and the food stamp program are examples of categorical grants. Block grants come with less stringent federal administrative conditions and provide recipients more flexibility over how to spend grant funds. Examples of block grants include the Workforce Investment Act program, which provides state and local agencies money to help youths and adults obtain skill sets that will lead to better-paying jobs, and the Surface Transportation Program, which helps state and local governments maintain and improve highways, bridges, tunnels, sidewalks, and bicycle paths. Finally, recipients of general revenue sharing faced the least restrictions on the use of federal grants. From 1972 to 1986, when revenue sharing was abolished, upwards of \$85 billion of federal money was distributed to states, cities, counties, towns, and villages.45
During the 1960s and 1970s, funding for federal grants grew significantly, as the trend line shows in Figure 3.13. Growth picked up again in the 1990s and 2000s. The upward slope since the 1990s is primarily due to the increase in federal grant money going to Medicaid. Federally funded health-care programs jumped from \$43.8 billion in 1990 to \$320 billion in 2014.46 Health-related grant programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) represented more than half of total federal grant expenses.
Link to Learning
The federal government uses grants and other tools to achieve its national policy priorities. Take a look at the National Priorities Project to find out more.
The federal government uses grants and other tools to achieve its national policy priorities. Take a look at the National Priorities Project to find out more.
The national government has greatly preferred using categorical grants to transfer funds to state and local authorities because this type of grant gives them more control and discretion in how the money is spent. In 2014, the federal government distributed 1,099 grants, 1,078 of which were categorical, while only 21 were block grants.47 In response to the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, more than a dozen new federal grant programs relating to homeland security were created, but as of 2011, only three were block grants.
There are a couple of reasons that categorical grants are more popular than block grants despite calls to decentralize public policy. One reason is that elected officials who sponsor these grants can take credit for their positive outcomes (e.g., clean rivers, better-performing schools, healthier children, a secure homeland) since elected officials, not state officials, formulate the administrative standards that lead to the results. Another reason is that categorical grants afford federal officials greater command over grant program performance. A common criticism leveled against block grants is that they lack mechanisms to hold state and local administrators accountable for outcomes, a reproach the Obama administration has made about the Community Services Block Grant program. Finally, once categorical grants have been established, vested interests in Congress and the federal bureaucracy seek to preserve them. The legislators who enact them and the federal agencies that implement them invest heavily in defending them, ensuring their continuation.48
Reagan’s “devolution revolution” contributed to raising the number of block grants from six in 1981 to fourteen in 1989. Block grants increased to twenty-four in 1999 during the Clinton administration and to twenty-six during Obama’s presidency, but by 2014 the total had dropped to twenty-one, accounting for 10 percent of total federal grant outlay.49 President Trump proposed eliminating four discretionary block grants in his "skinny" budget, although the budget was not passed.
In 1994, the Republican-controlled Congress passed legislation that called for block-granting Medicaid, which would have capped federal Medicaid spending. President Clinton vetoed the legislation. However, congressional efforts to convert Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) to a block grant succeeded. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant replaced the AFDC in 1996, marking the first time the federal government transformed an entitlement program (which guarantees individual rights to benefits) into a block grant. Under the AFDC, the federal government had reimbursed states a portion of the costs they bore for running the program without placing a ceiling on the amount. In contrast, the TANF block grant caps annual federal funding at \$16.489 billion and provides a yearly lump sum to each state, which it can use to manage its own program.
Block grants have been championed for their cost-cutting effects. By eliminating uncapped federal funding, as the TANF issue illustrates, the national government can reverse the escalating costs of federal grant programs. This point has not been lost on Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), former chair of the House Budget Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, who has tried multiple times but without success to convert Medicaid into a block grant, a reform he estimates could save the federal government upwards of \$732 billion over ten years.50
Another noteworthy characteristic of block grants is that their flexibility has been undermined over time as a result of creeping categorization, a process in which the national government places new administrative requirements on state and local governments or supplants block grants with new categorical grants.51 Among the more common measures used to restrict block grants’ programmatic flexibility are set-asides (i.e., requiring a certain share of grant funds to be designated for a specific purpose) and cost ceilings (i.e., placing a cap on funding other purposes).
Unfunded Mandates
Unfunded mandates are federal laws and regulations that impose obligations on state and local governments without fully compensating them for the administrative costs they incur. The federal government has used mandates increasingly since the 1960s to promote national objectives in policy areas such as the environment, civil rights, education, and homeland security. One type of mandate threatens civil and criminal penalties for state and local authorities that fail to comply with them across the board in all programs, while another provides for the suspension of federal grant money if the mandate is not followed. These types of mandates are commonly referred to as crosscutting mandates. Failure to fully comply with crosscutting mandates can result in punishments that normally include reduction of or suspension of federal grants, prosecution of officials, fines, or some combination of these penalties. If only one requirement is not met, state or local governments may not get any money at all.
For example, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 authorizes the federal government to withhold federal grants as well as file lawsuits against state and local officials for practicing racial discrimination. Finally, some mandates come in the form of partial preemption regulations, whereby the federal government sets national regulatory standards but delegates the enforcement to state and local governments. For example, the Clean Air Act sets air quality regulations but instructs states to design implementation plans to achieve such standards (Figure 3.14).52
The widespread use of federal mandates in the 1970s and 1980s provoked a backlash among state and local authorities, which culminated in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) in 1995. The UMRA’s main objective has been to restrain the national government’s use of mandates by subjecting rules that impose unfunded requirements on state and local governments to greater procedural scrutiny. However, since the act’s implementation, states and local authorities have obtained limited relief. A new piece of legislation aims to take this approach further. The 2015 Unfunded Mandates and Information Transparency Act, HR 50, passed the House early in 2015 where it was placed on the legislative calendar but moved no further.53
The number of mandates has continued to rise, and some have been especially costly to states and local authorities. Consider the Real ID Act of 2005, a federal law designed to beef up homeland security. The law requires driver’s licenses and state-issued identification cards (DL/IDs) to contain standardized anti-fraud security features, specific data, and machine-readable technology. It also requires states to verify the identity of everyone being reissued DL/IDs. The Department of Homeland Security announced a phased enforcement of the law in 2013, which requires individuals to present compliant DL/IDs to board commercial airlines starting in 2016. The cost to states of re-issuing DL/IDs, implementing new identity verification procedures, and redesigning DL/IDs is estimated to be \$11 billion, and the federal government stands to reimburse only a small fraction.54 Compliance with the federal law has been onerous for many states; numerous extensions to states have been granted since 2016 and only thirty-eight were in full compliance with Real ID as of December 2018.55 Ultimately, all fifty states and the District of Columbia were certified as compliant.
The continued use of unfunded mandates clearly contradicts new federalism’s call for giving states and local governments more flexibility in carrying out national goals. The temptation to use them appears to be difficult for the federal government to resist, however, as the UMRA’s poor track record illustrates. This is because mandates allow the federal government to fulfill its national priorities while passing most of the cost to the states, an especially attractive strategy for national lawmakers trying to cut federal spending.56 Some leading federalism scholars have used the term coercive federalism to capture this aspect of contemporary U.S. federalism.57 In other words, Washington has been as likely to use the stick of mandates as the carrot of grants to accomplish its national objectives. As a result, there have been more instances of confrontational interactions between the states and the federal government.
Milestone
The Clery Act
The Clery Act of 1990, formally the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, requires public and private colleges and universities that participate in federal student aid programs to disclose information about campus crime. The Act is named after Jeanne Clery, who in 1986 was raped and murdered by a fellow student in her Lehigh University dorm room.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Clery Act Compliance Division is responsible for enforcing the 1990 Act. Specifically, to remain eligible for federal financial aid funds and avoid penalties, colleges and universities must comply with the following provisions:
• Publish an annual security report and make it available to current and prospective students and employees;
• Keep a public crime log that documents each crime on campus and is accessible to the public;
• Disclose information about incidents of criminal homicide, sex offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson, and hate crimes that occurred on or near campus;
• Issue warnings about Clery Act crimes that pose a threat to students and employees;
• Develop a campus community emergency response and notification strategy that is subject to annual testing;
• Gather and report fire data to the federal government and publish an annual fire safety report;
• Devise procedures to address reports of missing students living in on-campus housing.
For more about the Clery Act, see Clery Center for Security on Campus, http://clerycenter.org.
Were you made aware of your campus’s annual security report before you enrolled? Do you think reporting about campus security is appropriately regulated at the federal level under the Clery Act? Why or why not? | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/03%3A_American_Federalism/3.04%3A_Intergovernmental_Relationships.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Explain the dynamic of competitive federalism
• Analyze some issues over which the states and federal government have contended
Certain functions clearly belong to the federal government, the state governments, and local governments. National security is a federal matter, the issuance of licenses is a state matter, and garbage collection is a local matter. One aspect of competitive federalism today is that some policy issues, such as immigration and the marital rights of gays and lesbians, have been redefined as the roles that states and the federal government play in them have changed. Another aspect of competitive federalism is that interest groups seeking to change the status quo can take a policy issue up to the federal government or down to the states if they feel it is to their advantage. Interest groups have used this strategy to promote their views on such issues as abortion, gun control, and the legal drinking age.
Contending Issues
Immigration and marriage equality have not been the subject of much contention between states and the federal government until recent decades. Before that, it was understood that the federal government handled immigration and states determined the legality of same-sex marriage. This understanding of exclusive responsibilities has changed; today both levels of government play roles in these two policy areas.
Arizona has been one of the states at the forefront of immigration federalism. In 2010, it passed Senate Bill 1070, which sought to make it so difficult for illegal immigrants to live in the state that they would return to their native country, a strategy referred to as “attrition by enforcement.”61 The federal government filed suit to block the Arizona law, contending that it conflicted with federal immigration laws. Arizona’s law has also divided society, because some groups, like the Tea Party movement, have supported its tough stance against illegal immigrants, while other groups have opposed it for humanitarian and human-rights reasons (Figure 3.15). According to a poll of Latino voters in the state by Arizona State University researchers, 81 percent opposed this bill.62
In 2012, in Arizona v. United States, the Supreme Court affirmed federal supremacy on immigration.63 The court struck down three of the four central provisions of the Arizona law—namely, those allowing police officers to arrest an undocumented immigrant without a warrant if they had probable cause to think the immigrant had committed a crime that could lead to deportation, making it a crime to seek a job without proper immigration documentation, and making it a crime to be in Arizona without valid immigration papers. The court upheld the “show me your papers” provision, which authorizes police officers to check the immigration status of anyone they stop or arrest who they suspect is an undocumented immigrant.64 However, in letting this provision stand, the court warned Arizona and other states with similar laws that they could face civil rights lawsuits if police officers applied it based on racial profiling.65 All in all, Justice Anthony Kennedy’s opinion embraced an expansive view of the U.S. government’s authority to regulate immigration, describing it as broad and undoubted. That authority derived from the legislative power of Congress to “establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization,” enumerated in the Constitution. During the COVID-19 pandemic, California moved in the opposite direction. The California Immigrant Resilience Fund led to the provision of \$75 million for undocumented Californians not eligible for other COVID-19 programs.
Link to Learning
Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070 has been the subject of heated debate. Read the views of proponents and opponents of the law.
Marital rights for gays and lesbians have also significantly changed in recent years. By passing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996, the federal government stepped into this policy issue. Not only did DOMA allow states to choose whether to recognize same-sex marriages, it also defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, which meant that same-sex couples were denied various federal provisions and benefits—such as the right to file joint tax returns and receive Social Security survivor benefits. In 1997, more than half the states in the union had passed some form of legislation banning same-sex marriage. By 2006, two years after Massachusetts became the first state to recognize marriage equality, twenty-seven states had passed constitutional bans on same-sex marriage. In United States v. Windsor, the Supreme Court changed the dynamic established by DOMA by ruling that the federal government had no authority to define marriage. The Court held that states possess the “historic and essential authority to define the marital relation,” and that the federal government’s involvement in this area “departs from this history and tradition of reliance on state law to define marriage.”66
Insider Perspective
Edith Windsor: Icon of the Marriage Equality Movement
Edith Windsor, the plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case United States v. Windsor, became an icon of the marriage equality movement for her successful effort to force repeal the DOMA provision that denied married same-sex couples a host of federal provisions and protections. In 2007, after having lived together since the late 1960s, Windsor and her partner Thea Spyer were married in Canada, where same-sex marriage was legal. After Spyer died in 2009, Windsor received a \$363,053 federal tax bill on the estate Spyer had left her. Because her marriage was not valid under federal law, her request for the estate-tax exemption that applies to surviving spouses was denied. With the counsel of her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, Windsor sued the federal government and won (Figure 3.16).
Because of the Windsor decision, federal laws could no longer discriminate against same-sex married couples. What is more, marriage equality became a reality in a growing number of states as federal court after federal court overturned state constitutional bans on same-sex marriage. The Windsor case gave federal judges the moment of clarity from the U.S. Supreme Court that they needed. James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project, summarizes the significance of the case as follows: “Part of what’s gotten us to this exciting moment in American culture is not just Edie’s lawsuit but the story of her life. The love at the core of that story, as well as the injustice at its end, is part of what has moved America on this issue so profoundly.”67 In the final analysis, same-sex marriage is a protected constitutional right as decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which took up the issue again when it heard Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015.
What role do you feel the story of Edith Windsor played in reframing the debate over same-sex marriage? How do you think it changed the federal government’s view of its role in legislation regarding same-sex marriage relative to the role of the states?
Following the Windsor decision, the number of states that recognized same-sex marriages increased rapidly, as illustrated in Figure 3.17. In 2015, marriage equality was recognized in thirty-six states plus Washington, DC, up from seventeen in 2013. The diffusion of marriage equality across states was driven in large part by federal district and appeals courts, which have used the rationale underpinning the Windsor case (i.e., laws cannot discriminate between same-sex and opposite-sex couples based on the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment) to invalidate state bans on same-sex marriage. The 2014 court decision not to hear a collection of cases from four different states essentially affirmed same-sex marriage in thirty states. And in 2015 the Supreme Court gave same-sex marriage a constitutional basis of right nationwide in Obergefell v. Hodges. In sum, as the immigration and marriage equality examples illustrate, constitutional disputes have arisen as states and the federal government have sought to reposition themselves on certain policy issues, disputes that the federal courts have had to sort out.
Strategizing About New Issues
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was established in 1980 by a woman whose thirteen-year-old daughter had been killed by a drunk driver. The organization lobbied state legislators to raise the drinking age and impose tougher penalties, but without success. States with lower drinking ages had an economic interest in maintaining them because they lured youths from neighboring states with restricted consumption laws. So MADD decided to redirect its lobbying efforts at Congress, hoping to find sympathetic representatives willing to take action. In 1984, the federal government passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act (NMDAA), a crosscutting mandate that gradually reduced federal highway grant money to any state that failed to increase the legal age for alcohol purchase and possession to twenty-one. After losing a legal battle against the NMDAA, all states were in compliance by 1988.68
By creating two institutional access points—the federal and state governments—the U.S. federal system enables interest groups such as MADD to strategize about how best to achieve their policy objectives. The term venue shopping refers to a strategy in which interest groups select the level and branch of government (legislature, judiciary, or executive) they calculate will be most advantageous for them.69 If one institutional venue proves unreceptive to an advocacy group’s policy goal, as state legislators were to MADD, the group will attempt to steer its issue to a more responsive venue.
The strategy anti-abortion advocates have used in recent years is another example of venue shopping. In their attempts to limit abortion rights in the wake of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision making abortion legal nationwide, anti-abortion advocates initially targeted Congress in hopes of obtaining restrictive legislation.70 Lack of progress at the national level prompted them to shift their focus to state legislators, where their advocacy efforts have been more successful. By 2015, for example, thirty-eight states required some form of parental involvement in a minor’s decision to have an abortion, forty-six states allowed individual health-care providers to refuse to participate in abortions, and thirty-two states prohibited the use of public funds to carry out an abortion except when the woman’s life is in danger or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. While 31 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age resided in one of the thirteen states that had passed restrictive abortion laws in 2000, by 2013, about 56 percent of such women resided in one of the twenty-seven states where abortion is restricted.71 | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/03%3A_American_Federalism/3.05%3A__Competitive_Federalism_Today.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Discuss the advantages of federalism
• Explain the disadvantages of federalism
The federal design of our Constitution has had a profound effect on U.S. politics. Several positive and negative attributes of federalism have manifested themselves in the U.S. political system.
The Benefits of Federalism
Among the merits of federalism are that it promotes policy innovation and political participation and accommodates diversity of opinion. On the subject of policy innovation, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis observed in 1932 that “a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.”72 What Brandeis meant was that states could harness their constitutional authority to engage in policy innovations that might eventually be diffused to other states and at the national level. For example, a number of New Deal breakthroughs, such as child labor laws, were inspired by state policies. Prior to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, several states had already granted women the right to vote. California has led the way in establishing standards for fuel emissions and other environmental policies (Figure 3.18). Recently, the health insurance exchanges run by Connecticut, Kentucky, Rhode Island, and Washington have served as models for other states seeking to improve the performance of their exchanges.73
Another advantage of federalism is that because our federal system creates two levels of government with the capacity to take action, failure to attain a desired policy goal at one level can be offset by successfully securing the support of elected representatives at another level. Thus, individuals, groups, and social movements are encouraged to actively participate and help shape public policy.
Federalism and Political Office
Thinking of running for elected office? Well, you have several options. As Table 3.1 shows, there are a total of 510,682 elected offices at the federal, state, and local levels. Elected representatives in municipal and township governments account for a little more than half the total number of elected officials in the United States. Political careers rarely start at the national level. In fact, a very small share of politicians at the subnational level transition to the national stage as representatives, senators, vice presidents, or presidents.
Table 3.1 This table lists the number of elected bodies and elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels.75
Elected Officials at the Federal, State, and Local Levels
Number of Elective Bodies Number of Elected Officials
Federal Government 1
Executive branch 2
U.S. Senate 100
U.S. House of Representatives 435
State Government 50
State legislatures 7,382
Statewide offices 1,036
State boards 1,331
Local Government
County governments 3,034 58,818
Municipal governments 19,429 135,531
Town governments 16,504 126,958
School districts 13,506 95,000
Special districts 35,052 84,089
Total 87,576 510,682
If you are interested in serving the public as an elected official, there are more opportunities to do so at the local and state levels than at the national level. As an added incentive for setting your sights at the subnational stage, consider the following. Whereas only 35 percent of U.S. adults trusted Congress in 2018, according to Gallup, about 63 percent trusted their state governments and 72 percent had confidence in their local governments.76 , 77
If you ran for public office, what problems would you most want to solve? What level of government would best enable you to solve them, and why?
The system of checks and balances in our political system often prevents the federal government from imposing uniform policies across the country. As a result, states and local communities have the latitude to address policy issues based on the specific needs and interests of their citizens. The diversity of public viewpoints across states is manifested by differences in the way states handle access to abortion, distribution of alcohol, gun control, and social welfare benefits, for example.
The Drawbacks of Federalism
Federalism also comes with drawbacks. Chief among them are economic disparities across states, race-to-the-bottom dynamics (i.e., states compete to attract business by lowering taxes and regulations), and the difficulty of taking action on issues of national importance.
Stark economic differences across states have a profound effect on the well-being of citizens. For example, in 2017, Maryland had the highest median household income (\$80,776), while West Virginia had the lowest (\$43,469).78 There are also huge disparities in school funding across states. In 2016, New York spent \$22,366 per student for elementary and secondary education, while Utah spent \$6,953.79 Furthermore, health-care access, costs, and quality vary greatly across states.80 Proponents of social justice contend that federalism has tended to obstruct national efforts to effectively even out these disparities. When national policy-making is stymied, and policy advocates move to the state level, it takes fifty-one different advocacy efforts to bring about change, compared to one effort were the national government to take the lead.
Link to Learning
The National Education Association discusses the problem of inequality in the educational system of the United States. Visit the Racial & Social Justice page of the NEA website to see how NEA EdJustice is advocating for change in this area.
The economic strategy of using race-to-the-bottom tactics in order to compete with other states in attracting new business growth also carries a social cost. For example, workers’ safety and pay can suffer as workplace regulations are lifted, and the reduction in payroll taxes for employers has led a number of states to end up with underfunded unemployment insurance programs.81 As of March 2021, twelve states have also opted not to expand Medicaid, as encouraged by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010, for fear it will raise state public spending and increase employers’ cost of employee benefits, despite provisions that the federal government will pick up nearly all cost of the expansion.82 , 83 More than half of these states are in the South.
The federal design of our Constitution and the system of checks and balances has jeopardized or outright blocked federal responses to important national issues. President Roosevelt’s efforts to combat the scourge of the Great Depression were initially struck down by the Supreme Court. More recently, President Obama’s effort to make health insurance accessible to more Americans under the Affordable Care Act immediately ran into legal challenges 84 from some states, but it has been supported by the Supreme Court so far. However, the federal government’s ability to defend the voting rights of citizens suffered a major setback when the Supreme Court in 2013 struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.85 No longer are the nine states with histories of racial discrimination in their voting processes required to submit plans for changes to the federal government for approval. After a tumultuous 2020 election, many states in 2021 advanced legislation to make voting rules and processes more rigorous, a move many said was an effort to limit voting access. For example, elected leaders in Georgia passed a law making voter ID requirements much stricter and also significantly limited options to vote outside of Election Day itself.86 | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/03%3A_American_Federalism/3.06%3A_Advantages_and_Disadvantages_of_Federalism.txt |
bill of attainder
a legislative action declaring someone guilty without a trial; prohibited under the Constitution
block grant
a type of grant that comes with less stringent federal administrative conditions and provide recipients more latitude over how to spend grant funds
categorical grant
a federal transfer formulated to limit recipients’ discretion in the use of funds and subject them to strict administrative criteria
concurrent powers
shared state and federal powers that range from taxing, borrowing, and making and enforcing laws to establishing court systems
cooperative federalism
a style of federalism in which both levels of government coordinate their actions to solve national problems, leading to the blending of layers as in a marble cake
creeping categorization
a process in which the national government attaches new administrative requirements to block grants or supplants them with new categorical grants
devolution
a process in which powers from the central government in a unitary system are delegated to subnational units
dual federalism
a style of federalism in which the states and national government exercise exclusive authority in distinctly delineated spheres of jurisdiction, creating a layer-cake view of federalism
elastic clause
the last clause of Article I, Section 8, which enables the national government “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying” out all its constitutional responsibilities
ex post facto law
a law that criminalizes an act retroactively; prohibited under the Constitution
federalism
an institutional arrangement that creates two relatively autonomous levels of government, each possessing the capacity to act directly on the people with authority granted by the national constitution
full faith and credit clause
found in Article IV, Section 1, of the Constitution, this clause requires states to accept court decisions, public acts, and contracts of other states; also referred to as the comity provision
general revenue sharing
a type of federal grant that places minimal restrictions on how state and local governments spend the money
immigration federalism
the gradual movement of states into the immigration policy domain traditionally handled by the federal government
new federalism
a style of federalism premised on the idea that the decentralization of policies enhances administrative efficiency, reduces overall public spending, and improves outcomes
nullification
a doctrine promoted by John Calhoun of South Carolina in the 1830s, asserting that if a state deems a federal law unconstitutional, it can nullify it within its borders
privileges and immunities clause
found in Article IV, Section 2, of the Constitution, this clause prohibits states from discriminating against out-of-staters by denying such guarantees as access to courts, legal protection, and property and travel rights
race-to-the-bottom
a dynamic in which states compete to attract business by lowering taxes and regulations, often to workers’ detriment
unfunded mandates
federal laws and regulations that impose obligations on state and local governments without fully compensating them for the costs of implementation
unitary system
a centralized system of government in which the subnational government is dependent on the central government, where substantial authority is concentrated
venue shopping
a strategy in which interest groups select the level and branch of government they calculate will be most receptive to their policy goals
writ of habeas corpus
a petition that enables someone in custody to petition a judge to determine whether that person’s detention is legal
3.08: Summary
The Division of Powers
Federalism is a system of government that creates two relatively autonomous levels of government, each possessing authority granted to them by the national constitution. Federal systems like the one in the United States are different from unitary systems, which concentrate authority in the national government, and from confederations, which concentrate authority in subnational governments.
The U.S. Constitution allocates powers to the states and federal government, structures the relationship between these two levels of government, and guides state-to-state relationships. Federal, state, and local governments rely on different sources of revenue to enable them to fulfill their public responsibilities.
The Evolution of American Federalism
Federalism in the United States has gone through several phases of evolution during which the relationship between the federal and state governments has varied. In the era of dual federalism, both levels of government stayed within their own jurisdictional spheres. During the era of cooperative federalism, the federal government became active in policy areas previously handled by the states. The 1970s ushered in an era of new federalism and attempts to decentralize policy management.
Intergovernmental Relationships
To accomplish its policy priorities, the federal government often needs to elicit the cooperation of states and local governments, using various strategies. Block and categorical grants provide money to lower government levels to subsidize the cost of implementing policy programs fashioned in part by the federal government. This strategy gives state and local authorities some degree of flexibility and discretion as they coordinate with the federal government. On the other hand, mandate compels state and local governments to abide by federal laws and regulations or face penalties.
Competitive Federalism Today
Some policy areas have been redefined as a result of changes in the roles that states and the federal government play in them. The constitutional disputes these changes often trigger have had to be sorted out by the Supreme Court. Contemporary federalism has also witnessed interest groups engaging in venue shopping. Aware of the multiple access points to our political system, such groups seek to access the level of government they deem will be most receptive to their policy views.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Federalism
The benefits of federalism are that it can encourage political participation, give states an incentive to engage in policy innovation, and accommodate diverse viewpoints across the country. The disadvantages are that it can set off a race to the bottom among states, cause cross-state economic and social disparities, and obstruct federal efforts to address national problems. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/03%3A_American_Federalism/3.07%3A_Key_Terms.txt |
1. Which statement about federal and unitary systems is most accurate?
1. In a federal system, power is concentrated in the states; in a unitary system, it is concentrated in the national government.
2. In a federal system, the constitution allocates powers between states and federal government; in a unitary system, powers are lodged in the national government.
3. Today there are more countries with federal systems than with unitary systems.
4. The United States and Japan have federal systems, while Great Britain and Canada have unitary systems.
Answer
B
1. Which statement is most accurate about the sources of revenue for local and state governments?
1. Taxes generate well over one-half the total revenue of local and state governments.
2. Property taxes generate the most tax revenue for both local and state governments.
3. Between 30 and 40 percent of the revenue for local and state governments comes from grant money.
4. Local and state governments generate an equal amount of revenue from issuing licenses and certificates.
2. What key constitutional provisions define the scope of authority of the federal and state governments?
Answer
The following parts of the Constitution sketch the powers of the states and the federal government: Article I, Section 8; the supremacy clause of Article VI; and the Tenth Amendment. The following parts of the Constitution detail the limits on their authority: Article I, Sections 9 and 10; Bill of Rights; Fourteenth Amendment; and the civil rights amendments.
1. What are the main functions of federal and state governments?
2. In McCulloch v. Maryland, the Supreme Court invoked which provisions of the constitution?
1. Tenth Amendment and spending clause
2. commerce clause and supremacy clause
3. necessary and proper clause and supremacy clause
4. taxing power and necessary and proper clause
Answer
C
1. Which statement about new federalism is not true?
1. New federalism was launched by President Nixon and continued by President Reagan.
2. New federalism is based on the idea that decentralization of responsibility enhances administrative efficiency.
3. United States v. Lopez is a Supreme Court ruling that advanced the logic of new federalism.
4. President Reagan was able to promote new federalism consistently throughout his administration.
2. Which is not a merit of cooperative federalism?
1. Federal cooperation helps mitigate the problem of collective action among states.
2. Federal assistance encourages state and local governments to generate positive externalities.
3. Cooperative federalism respects the traditional jurisdictional boundaries between states and federal government.
4. Federal assistance ensures some degree of uniformity of public services across states.
Answer
C
1. What are the main differences between cooperative federalism and dual federalism?
2. What were the implications of McCulloch v. Maryland for federalism?
Answer
The McCulloch decision established the doctrine of implied powers, meaning the federal government can create policy instruments deemed necessary and appropriate to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities. The case also affirmed the principle of national supremacy embodied in Article VI of the Constitution, namely, that the Constitution and legitimate federal laws trump state laws.
1. Which statement about federal grants in recent decades is most accurate?
1. The federal government allocates the most grant money to income security.
2. The amount of federal grant money going to states has steadily increased since the 1960s.
3. The majority of federal grants are block grants.
4. Block grants tend to gain more flexibility over time.
2. Which statement about unfunded mandates is false?
1. The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act has prevented Congress from using unfunded mandates.
2. The Clean Air Act is a type of federal partial preemptive regulation.
3. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act establishes crosscutting requirements.
4. New federalism promotes the use of unfunded mandates.
Answer
D
1. What does it mean to refer to the carrot of grants and the stick of mandates?
2. Which statement about immigration federalism is false?
1. The Arizona v. United States decision struck down all Arizona’s most restrictive provisions on undocumented immigration.
2. Since the 1990s, states have increasingly moved into the policy domain of immigration.
3. Federal immigration laws trump state laws.
4. States’ involvement in immigration is partly due to their interest in preventing undocumented immigrants from accessing public services such as education and welfare benefits.
Answer
A
1. Which statement about the evolution of same-sex marriage is false?
1. The federal government became involved in this issue when it passed DOMA.
2. In the 1990s and 2000s, the number of state restrictions on same-sex marriage increased.
3. United States v. Windsor legalized same-sex marriage in the United States.
4. More than half the states had legalized same-sex marriage by the time the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal nationwide in 2015.
2. Which statement about venue shopping is true?
1. MADD steered the drinking age issue from the federal government down to the states.
2. Anti-abortion advocates have steered the abortion issue from the states up to the federal government.
3. Both MADD and anti-abortion proponents redirected their advocacy from the states to the federal government.
4. None of the statements are correct.
Answer
D
1. What does venue shopping mean?
2. Which of the following is not a benefit of federalism?
1. Federalism promotes political participation.
2. Federalism encourages economic equality across the country.
3. Federalism provides for multiple levels of government action.
4. Federalism accommodates a diversity of opinion.
Answer
B
1. Describe the advantages of federalism.
2. Describe the disadvantages of federalism.
Answer
Federalism can trigger a race to the bottom, leading states to reduce workplace regulations and social benefits for employees; it can obstruct federal efforts to address national problems; and it can deepen economic and social disparities among states.
3.10: Critical Thinking Questions
1. Describe the primary differences in the role of citizens in government among the federal, confederation, and unitary systems.
2. How have the political and economic relationships between the states and federal government evolved since the early 1800s?
3. Discuss how the federal government shapes the actions of state and local governments.
4. What are the merits and drawbacks of American federalism?
5. What do you see as the upcoming challenges to federalism in the next decade? Choose an issue and outline how the states and the federal government could respond.
3.11: Suggestions for Further Study
Beer, Samuel H. 1998. To Make a Nation: The Rediscovery of American Federalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Berry, Christopher R. 2009. Imperfect Union: Representation and Taxation in Multilevel Governments. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Derthick, Martha, ed. 1999. Dilemmas of Scale in America’s Federal Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Diamond, Martin. 1981. The Founding of the American Democratic Republic. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Elazar, Daniel J. 1992. Federal Systems of the World: A Handbook of Federal, Confederal and Autonomy Arrangements. Harlow, Essex: Longman Current Affairs.
Grodzins, Morton. 2004. “The Federal System.” In American Government Readings and Cases, ed. P. Woll. New York: Pearson Longman, 74–78.
LaCroix, Alison. 2011. The Ideological Origins of American Federalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Orren, Karen, and Stephen Skowronek. 2004. The Search for American Political Development. New York: Cambridge University Press.
O’Toole, Laurence J., Jr., and Robert K. Christensen, eds. 2012. American Intergovernmental Relations: Foundations, Perspectives, and Issues. Thousand Oaks, CA: CQ Press.
Peterson, Paul E. 1995. The Price of Federalism. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Watts, Ronald L. 1999. Comparing Federal Systems. 2nd ed. Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen’s University Press. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/03%3A_American_Federalism/3.09%3A_Review_Questions.txt |
1. See John Kincaid. 1975. “Federalism.” In Civitas: A Framework for Civil Education, eds. Charles Quigley and Charles Bahmueller. Calabasas, CA: Center for Civic Education, 391–392; William S. Riker. 1975. “Federalism.” In Handbook of Political Science, eds. Fred Greenstein and Nelson Polsby. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 93–172.
2. Garry Willis, ed. 1982. The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. New York: Bantam Books, 237.
3. Danielle Kurtzleben, "House Votes to Revive Equal Rights Amendment, Removing Ratification Deadline," NPR, 13 February 2020, https://www.npr.org/2020/02/13/80564...ation-deadline.
4. Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. 387 (2012).
5. United States v. Wrightwood Dairy Co., 315 U.S. 110 (1942).
6. Ronald L. Watts. 1999. Comparing Federal Systems, 2nd ed. Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen’s University, 6–7; Daniel J. Elazar. 1992. Federal Systems of the World: A Handbook of Federal, Confederal and Autonomy Arrangements. Harlow, Essex: Longman Current Affairs.
7. Jack Rakove. 2007. James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic. New York: Pearson; Samuel H. Beer. 1998. To Make a Nation: The Rediscovery of American Federalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
8. Elton E. Richter. 1929. “Exclusive and Concurrent Powers in the Federal Constitution,” Notre Dame Law Review 4, No. 8: 513–542. http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/vi...6&context=ndlr
9. Baehr v. Lewin. 1993. 74 Haw. 530.
10. United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. 744 (2013).
11. Adam Liptak, “Supreme Court Delivers Tacit Win to Gay Marriage,” New York Times, 6 October, 2014.
12. Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015).
13. Data reported by http://www.usgovernmentrevenue.com/federal_revenue. State and local government figures are estimated.
14. Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co., 158 U.S. 601 (1895).
15. See Robert Jay Dilger, “Federal Grants to State and Local Governments: A Historical Perspective on Contemporary Issues,” Congressional Research Service, Report 7-5700, 5 March 2015.
16. Jeffrey L. Barnett et al. 2014. 2012 Census of Governments: Finance-State and Local Government Summary Report, Appendix Table A-1. December 17. Washington, DC: United States Census Bureau, 2.
17. Rachel Siegel, "What's in Congress's \$1.9 Trillion COVID Bill: Checks, Unemployment Insurance and More, 10 March 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...-the-stimulus/.
18. "Assistance for State, Local, and Tribal Governments," U.S. Department of the Treasury, https://home.treasury.gov/policy-iss...us-relief-fund (June 2021).
19. Data reported by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 2015. “Policy Basics: Where Do Our Federal Tax Dollars Go?” March 11. http://www.cbpp.org/research/policy-...tax-dollars-go
20. The Lehrman Institute. “The Founding Trio: Washington, Hamilton and Jefferson.” http://lehrmaninstitute.org/history/FoundingTrio.asp
21. McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819).
22. Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824).
23. Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824).
24. W. Kirk Wood. 2008. Nullification, A Constitutional History, 1776–1833. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
25. Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857).
26. Joseph R. Marbach, Troy E. Smith, and Ellis Katz. 2005. Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing.
27. Marc Allen Eisner. 2014. The American Political Economy: Institutional Evolution of Market and State. New York: Routledge.
28. Eisner, The American Political Economy; Stephen Skowronek. 1982. Building a New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities, 1877–1920. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
29. United States v. E. C. Knight, 1sometimes referred to as the Sugar Trust case, 56 U.S. 1 (1895).
30. Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905).
31. Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U.S. 251 (1918).
32. Nicholas Crafts and Peter Fearon. 2010. “Lessons from the 1930s Great Depression,” Oxford Review of Economic Policy 26: 286–287; Gene Smiley. “The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics: Great Depression.” http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/G...epression.html
33. Marbach et al, Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia.
34. Jeff Shesol. 2010. Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. The Supreme Court. New York: W. W. Norton.
35. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) v. Jones & Laughlin Steel, 301 U.S. 1 (1937).
36. Lawrence R. Jacobs and Theda Skocpol. 2014. “Progressive Federalism and the Contested Implemented of Obama’s Health Reform,” In The Politics of Major Policy Reform in Postwar America, eds. Jeffrey A. Jenkins and Sidney M. Milkis. New York: Cambridge University Press.
37. R. Kent Weaver. 2000. Ending Welfare as We Know It. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
38. Allen Schick. 2007. The Federal Budget, 3rd ed. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
39. Dilger, “Federal Grants to State and Local Governments,” 30–31.
40. United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995).
41. See Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997).
42. Morton Grodzins. 2004. “The Federal System.” In American Government Readings and Cases, ed. P. Woll. New York: Pearson Longman, 74–78.
43. U.S. Department of Education: Office for Civil Rights, Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Higher Education Desegregation, March 1991, https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/li...cs/hq9511.html.
44. Dilger, “Federal Grants to State and Local Governments.”
45. John Mikesell. 2014. Fiscal Administration, 9th ed. Boston: Wadsworth Publishing.
46. Dilger, “Federal Grants to State and Local Governments,” 5.
47. Dilger, “Federal Grants to State and Local Governments,” Table 4.
48. Schick, The Federal Budget.
49. Robert Jay Dilger and Eugene Boyd. 15 July 2014. “Block Grants: Perspectives and Controversies.” Congressional Research Service, Report R40486, 1–3. Isaac Shapiro, David Reich, Chloe Cho, and Richard Kogan. 28 March 2017. “Trump Budget Would Cut Block Grants Dramatically, Underscoring Danger of Granting Social Programs.” Center on Budgets and Policy Priorities. https://www.cbpp.org/research/federa...ring-danger-of.
50. Jonathan Weisman, “Ryan’s Budget Would Cut \$5 trillion in Spending Over a Decade,” New York Times, 1 April 2014.
51. Kenneth Finegold, Laura Wherry, and Stephanie Schardin. 2014. “Block Grants: Historical Overview and Lessons Learned,” New Federalism: Issues and Options for States Series A, No A-63: 1–7.
52. Martha Derthick. 1987. “American Federalism: Madison’s Middle Ground in the 1980s,” Public Administration Review 47, No. 1: 66–74.
53. U.S. Congress. 2017–2018. H. R. 50 – Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act of 2017. https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-...e-bill/50(June 1, 2021).
54. National Governors Association, National Conference of State Legislatures, and American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. 2006. The Real ID Act: National Impact Analysis. http://www.ncsl.org/print/statefed/r...nal_sept19.pdf
55. Department of Homeland Security. 18 December 2018. “Real ID.” https://www.dhs.gov/real-id. Homeland Security. “REAL ID Enforcement in Brief.” http://www.dhs.gov/real-id-enforcement-brief# (June 12, 2015); National Conference of State Legislatures. “Countdown to REAL ID.” http://www.ncsl.org/research/transpo...o-real-id.aspx (June 12, 2015).
56. Robert Jay Dilger and Richard S. Beth, “Unfunded Mandates Reform Act: History, Impact, and Issues,” Congressional Research Service, Report 7-5700, 17 November 2014.
57. John Kincaid. 1990. “From Cooperative Federalism to Coercive Federalism,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 509: 139–152.
58. Carol M. Swain and Virgina M. Yetter. (2014). “Federalism and the Politics of Immigration Reform.” In The Politics of Major Policy Reform in Postwar America, eds. Jeffery A. Jenkins and Sidney M. Milkis. New York: Cambridge University Press.
59. National Conference of State Legislatures. “State Laws Related to Immigration and Immigrants.” http://www.ncsl.org/research/immigra...mmigrants.aspx (June 23, 2015).
60. Ann Morse, "Report on State Immigration Laws - 2020," National Conference of State Legislatures, 8 March 2021, https://www.ncsl.org/research/immigr...laws-2020.aspx.
61. Michele Waslin. 2012. “Discrediting ‘Self Deportation’ as Immigration Policy,” February 6. http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/spe...gration-policy
62. Daniel González. 2010. “SB 1070 Backlash Spurs Hispanics to Join Democrats,” June 8. http://archive.azcentral.com/arizona...-backlash.html
63. Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. 387 (2012).
64. Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. 387 (2012).
65. Julia Preston, “Arizona Ruling Only a Narrow Opening for Other States,” New York Times, 25 June 2012.
66. United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. 744 (2013).
67. James Esseks. 2014. “Op-ed: In the Wake of Windsor,” June 26. http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2...d-wake-windsor (June 24, 2015).
68. South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U.S. 203 (1987).
69. Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones. 1993. Agendas and Instability in American Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
70. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).
71. Elizabeth Nash et al. 2013. “Laws Affecting Reproductive Health and Rights: 2013 State Policy Review.” http://www.guttmacher.org/statecente...ends42013.html (June 24, 2015).
72. New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 262 (1932).
73. Christine Vestal and Michael Ollove, “Why some state-run health exchanges worked,” USA Today, 10 December 2013.
74. Rachel Frazin, "More States Follow California's Lead on Vehicle Emissions Standards," The Hill, 28 February 2021, https://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...ions-standards.
75. Jennifer Lawless. 2012. Becoming a Candidate. New York: Cambridge University Press.
76. Justin McCarthy. 2014. “Americans Still More Trusting of Local Than State Government," Gallup, 8 October 2018, https://news.gallup.com/poll/243563/...overnment.aspx.
77. Lydia Saad, "Trust in Federal Government's Competence Remains Low," Gallup, 29 September 2020, https://news.gallup.com/poll/321119/...mains-low.aspx.
78. United States Census Bureau. 2017. “Median Household Income (in 2017 Inflation-Adjusted Dollars.” 2017 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates. https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/...prodType=table.
79. Governing the States and Localities. 1 June 2018. “Education Spending per Student by State.” http://www.governing.com/gov-data/ed...upil-data.html.
80. The Commonwealth Fund. “Aiming Higher: Results from a Scorecard on State Health System Performance, 2014.” http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publ...tate-scorecard (June 24, 2015).
81. Alexander Hertel-Fernandez. 2012. “Why U.S. Unemployment Insurance is in Financial Trouble,” February. http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.o..._financing.pdf
82. Matt Broaddus and January Angeles. 2012. “Federal Government Will Pick Up Nearly All Costs of Health Reform’s Medicaid Expansion,” March 28. http://www.cbpp.org/research/federal...caid-expansion.
83. "Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions: Interactive Map," KKF, 7 June 2021, https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-b...teractive-map/.
84. National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519 (2012).
85. Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013).
86. Mark Niesse, "Sweeping Changes to Georgia Elections Signed into Law," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 25 March 2021, https://www.ajc.com/politics/bill-ch...HTOBVEMTJLIT4/. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/03%3A_American_Federalism/3.12%3A_References.txt |
Recent Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the nation provide an example of the freedom of assembly protected by the Bill of Rights. This right may now be in jeopardy as bills in several state legislatures threaten peaceful gatherings and even shield citizens who attack such protesters. Fights like this—in the streets, courts, legislatures, and public opinion—are hardly unique in U.S. history. In fact, they are the main driver of political change. The COVID-19 pandemic offers new examples that involve real and perceived infringement on the rights of individuals: to mingle unmasked, to gather in close proximity, or even to assemble at all.1
The framers of the Constitution wanted a government that would not repeat the abuses of individual liberties and rights that caused them to declare independence from Britain. However, laws and other “parchment barriers” (or written documents) alone have not protected freedoms over the years; instead, citizens have learned the truth of the old saying (often attributed to Thomas Jefferson but actually said by Irish politician John Philpot Curran), “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” The actions of ordinary citizens, lawyers, and politicians have been at the core of a vigilant effort to protect constitutional liberties.
But what are those freedoms? And how should we balance them against the interests of society and other individuals? These are the key questions we will tackle in this chapter.
4.02: What Are Civil Liberties
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Define civil liberties and civil rights
• Describe the origin of civil liberties in the U.S. context
• Identify the key positions on civil liberties taken at the Constitutional Convention
• Explain the Civil War origin of concern that the states should respect civil liberties
The U.S. Constitution — in particular, the first ten amendments that form the Bill of Rights—protects the freedoms and rights of individuals. It does not limit this protection just to citizens or adults; instead, in most cases, the Constitution simply refers to “persons,” which over time has grown to mean that even children, visitors from other countries, and immigrants—permanent or temporary, legal or undocumented—enjoy the same freedoms when they are in the United States or its territories as adult citizens do. So, whether you are a Japanese tourist visiting Disney World or someone who has stayed beyond the limit of days allowed on your visa, you do not sacrifice your liberties. In everyday conversation, we tend to treat freedoms, liberties, and rights as being effectively the same thing—similar to how separation of powers and checks and balances are often used as if they are interchangeable, when in fact they are distinct concepts.
Defining Civil Liberties
To be more precise in their language, political scientists and legal experts make a distinction between civil liberties and civil rights, even though the Constitution has been interpreted to protect both. We typically envision civil liberties as being limitations on government power, intended to protect freedoms that governments may not legally intrude on. For example, the First Amendment denies the government the power to prohibit “the free exercise” of religion; the states and the national government cannot forbid people to follow a religion of their choice, even if politicians and judges think the religion is misguided, blasphemous, or otherwise inappropriate. You are free to create your own religion and recruit followers to it (subject to the U.S. Supreme Court deeming it a religion), even if both society and government disapprove of its tenets. That said, the way you practice your religion may be regulated if it impinges on the rights of others. Similarly, the Eighth Amendment says the government cannot impose “cruel and unusual punishments” on individuals for their criminal acts. Although the definitions of cruel and unusual have expanded over the years, as we will see later in this chapter, the courts have generally and consistently interpreted this provision as making it unconstitutional for government officials to torture suspects.
Civil rights, on the other hand, are guarantees that government officials will treat people equally and that decisions will be made on the basis of merit rather than race, gender, or other personal characteristics. Because of the Constitution’s civil rights guarantee, it is unlawful for a school or university run by a state government to treat students differently based on their race, ethnicity, age, sex, or national origin. In the 1960s and 1970s, many states had separate schools where only students of a certain race or gender were able to study. However, the courts decided that these policies violated the civil rights of students who could not be admitted because of those rules.2 In 2017, the Trump administration began enacting a policy at border entries in El Paso that entailed separating undocumented parents and children as they entered the United States. They expanded that policy in 2018. Today, the government continues to try to reunite families who were separated during that time.3
The idea that Americans—indeed, people in general—have fundamental rights and liberties was at the core of the arguments in favor of their independence. In writing the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Thomas Jefferson drew on the ideas of John Locke to express the colonists’ belief that they had certain inalienable or natural rights that no ruler had the power or authority to deny to his or her subjects. It was a scathing legal indictment of King George III for violating the colonists’ liberties. Although the Declaration of Independence does not guarantee specific freedoms, its language was instrumental in inspiring many of the states to adopt protections for civil liberties and rights in their own constitutions, and in expressing principles of the founding era that have resonated in the United States since its independence. In particular, Jefferson’s words “all men are created equal” became the centerpiece of struggles for the rights of women and minorities (Figure 4.2).
Link to Learning
Founded in 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is one of the oldest interest groups in the United States. The mission of this non-partisan, not-for-profit organization is “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.” Many of the Supreme Court cases in this chapter were litigated by, or with the support of, the ACLU. The ACLU offers a listing of state and local chapters on their website.
Civil Liberties and the Constitution
The Constitution as written in 1787 did not include a Bill of Rights, although the idea of including one was proposed and, after brief discussion, dismissed in the final week of the Constitutional Convention. The framers of the Constitution believed they faced much more pressing concerns than the protection of civil rights and liberties, most notably keeping the fragile union together in the light of internal unrest and external threats.
Moreover, the framers thought that they had adequately covered rights issues in the main body of the document. Indeed, the Federalists did include in the Constitution some protections against legislative acts that might restrict the liberties of citizens, based on the history of real and perceived abuses by both British kings and parliaments as well as royal governors. In Article I, Section 9, the Constitution limits the power of Congress in three ways: prohibiting the passage of bills of attainder, prohibiting ex post facto laws, and limiting the ability of Congress to suspend the writ of habeas corpus.
A bill of attainder is a law that convicts or punishes someone for a crime without a trial, a tactic used fairly frequently in England against the king’s enemies. Prohibition of such laws means that the U.S. Congress cannot simply punish people who are unpopular or seem to be guilty of crimes. An ex post facto law has a retroactive effect: it can be used to punish crimes that were not crimes at the time they were committed, or it can be used to increase the severity of punishment after the fact.
Finally, the writ of habeas corpus is used in our common-law legal system to demand that a neutral judge decide whether someone has been lawfully detained. Particularly in times of war, or even in response to threats against national security, the government has held suspected enemy agents without access to civilian courts, often without access to lawyers or a defense, seeking instead to try them before military tribunals or detain them indefinitely without trial. For example, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln detained suspected Confederate saboteurs and sympathizers in Union-controlled states and attempted to have them tried in military courts, leading the Supreme Court to rule in Ex parte Milligan that the government could not bypass the civilian court system in states where it was operating.4 In 1919, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was the lone dissenter in the Abrams v. United States decision that convicted four, young, antiwar activists for pamphleteering against U.S. involvement in the Russian Civil War, which now would be exercised as a clear case of freedom of speech.
During World War II, the Roosevelt administration interned Japanese Americans and had other suspected enemy agents—including U.S. citizens—tried by military courts rather than by the civilian justice system, a choice the Supreme Court upheld in Ex parte Quirin (Figure 4.3).5 More recently, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Bush and Obama administrations detained suspected terrorists captured both within and outside the United States and sought, with mixed results, to avoid trials in civilian courts. Hence, there have been times in our history when national security issues trumped individual liberties.
Debate has always swirled over these issues. The Federalists reasoned that the limited set of enumerated powers of Congress, along with the limitations on those powers in Article I, Section 9, would suffice, and no separate bill of rights was needed. Alexander Hamilton, writing as Publius in Federalist No. 84, argued that the Constitution was “merely intended to regulate the general political interests of the nation,” rather than to concern itself with “the regulation of every species of personal and private concerns.” Hamilton went on to argue that listing some rights might actually be dangerous, because it would provide a pretext for people to claim that rights not included in such a list were not protected. Later, James Madison, in his speech introducing the proposed amendments that would become the Bill of Rights, acknowledged another Federalist argument: “It has been said, that a bill of rights is not necessary, because the establishment of this government has not repealed those declarations of rights which are added to the several state constitutions.”6 Neither had the Articles of Confederation included a specific listing of rights, even if it was predictable that state governments would differ in what they would tolerate, grant, and prohibit among their citizens.
However, the Anti-Federalists argued that the Federalists’ position was incorrect and perhaps even insincere. The Anti-Federalists believed provisions such as the elastic clause in Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution would allow Congress to legislate on matters well beyond the limited ones foreseen by the Constitution’s authors; thus, they held that a bill of rights was necessary. One of the Anti-Federalists, Brutus, whom most scholars believe to be Robert Yates, wrote: “The powers, rights, and authority, granted to the general government by this Constitution, are as complete, with respect to every object to which they extend, as that of any state government—It reaches to every thing which concerns human happiness—Life, liberty, and property, are under its controul [sic]. There is the same reason, therefore, that the exercise of power, in this case, should be restrained within proper limits, as in that of the state governments.”7 The experience of the past two centuries has suggested that the Anti-Federalists may have been correct in this regard; while the states retain a great deal of importance, the scope and powers of the national government are much broader today than in 1787—likely beyond even the imaginings of the Federalists themselves.
The struggle to have rights clearly delineated and the decision of the framers to omit a bill of rights nearly derailed the ratification process. While some of the states were willing to ratify without any further guarantees, in some of the larger states—New York and Virginia in particular—the Constitution’s lack of specified rights became a serious point of contention. The Constitution could go into effect with the support of only nine states, but the Federalists knew it could not be effective without the participation of the largest states. To secure majorities in favor of ratification in New York and Virginia, as well as Massachusetts, they agreed to consider incorporating provisions suggested by the ratifying states as amendments to the Constitution.
Ultimately, James Madison delivered on this promise by proposing a package of amendments in the First Congress, drawing from the Declaration of Rights in the Virginia state constitution, suggestions from the ratification conventions, and other sources, which were extensively debated in both houses of Congress and ultimately proposed as twelve separate amendments for ratification by the states. Ten of the amendments were successfully ratified by the requisite 75 percent of the states and became known as the Bill of Rights (Table 4.1).
Table 4.1
Rights and Liberties Protected by the First Ten Amendments
First Amendment Right to freedoms of religion and speech; right to assemble and to petition the government for redress of grievances
Second Amendment Right to keep and bear arms to maintain a well-regulated militia
Third Amendment Right to not house soldiers during time of war
Fourth Amendment Right to be secure from unreasonable search and seizure
Fifth Amendment Rights in criminal cases, including due process and indictment by grand jury for capital crimes, as well as the right not to testify against oneself
Sixth Amendment Right to a speedy trial by an impartial jury
Seventh Amendment Right to a jury trial in civil cases
Eighth Amendment Right to not face excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishment
Ninth Amendment Rights retained by the people, even if they are not specifically enumerated by the Constitution
Tenth Amendment States’ rights to powers not specifically delegated to the federal government
Finding a Middle Ground
Debating the Need for a Bill of Rights
One of the most serious debates between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists was over the necessity of limiting the power of the new federal government with a Bill of Rights. As we saw in this section, the Federalists believed a Bill of Rights was unnecessary—and perhaps even dangerous to liberty, because it might invite violations of rights that weren’t included in it—while the Anti-Federalists thought the national government would prove adept at expanding its powers and influence and that citizens couldn’t depend on the good judgment of Congress alone to protect their rights.
As George Washington’s call for a bill of rights in his first inaugural address suggested, while the Federalists ultimately had to add the Bill of Rights to the Constitution in order to win ratification, the Anti-Federalists' fear that the national government might intrude on civil liberties proved to be prescient. In 1798, at the behest of President John Adams during the Quasi-War with France, Congress passed a series of four laws collectively known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. These laws were drafted to allow the president to imprison or deport foreign citizens that he believed were “dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States” and to restrict speech and newspaper articles critical of the federal government or its officials. The laws were primarily used against members and supporters of the opposition, the Democratic-Republican Party.
State laws and constitutions protecting free speech and freedom of the press proved ineffective in limiting this new federal power. Although the courts did not decide on the constitutionality of these laws at the time, most scholars believe the Sedition Act, in particular, would be ruled unconstitutional if it had remained in effect. Three of the four laws were repealed in the Jefferson administration, but one—the Alien Enemies Act—remains on the books today. Two centuries later, the issue of free speech and freedom of the press during times of international conflict remains a subject of intense public debate.
Should the government be able to restrict or censor unpatriotic, disloyal, or critical speech in times of international conflict? What about from government whistle-blowers or employees who leak sensitive information? How much freedom should journalists have to report on stories from the perspective of enemies or to repeat propaganda from opposing forces?
Extending the Bill of Rights to the States
In the decades following the Constitution’s ratification, the Supreme Court declined to expand the Bill of Rights to curb the power of the states, most notably in the 1833 case of Barron v. Baltimore.8 In this case, which dealt with property rights under the Fifth Amendment, the Supreme Court unanimously decided that the Bill of Rights applied only to actions by the federal government. Explaining the court’s ruling, Chief Justice John Marshall wrote that it was incorrect to argue that “the Constitution was intended to secure the people of the several states against the undue exercise of power by their respective state governments; as well as against that which might be attempted by their [Federal] government.”
The festering issue of the rights of enslaved persons and the convulsions of the Civil War and its aftermath forced a reexamination of the prevailing thinking about the application of the Bill of Rights to the states. Soon after slavery was abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment, state governments—particularly those in the former Confederacy—began to pass “Black codes” that restricted the rights of formerly enslaved people, including the right to hold office, own land, or vote, relegating them to second-class citizenship. Angered by these actions, members of the Radical Republican faction in Congress demanded that the Black codes be overturned. In the short term, they advocated suspending civilian government in most of the southern states and replacing politicians who had enacted these discriminatory laws. Their long-term solution was to propose and enforce two amendments to the Constitution to guarantee the rights of freed men and women. These became the Fourteenth Amendment, which dealt with civil liberties and rights in general, and the Fifteenth Amendment, which protected the right to vote in particular (Figure 4.4). though still not for women or Native Americans.
With the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, civil liberties gained more clarification. First, the amendment says, “no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States,” which is a provision that echoes the privileges and immunities clause in Article IV, Section 2, of the original Constitution ensuring that states treat citizens of other states the same as their own citizens. (To use an example from today, the punishment for speeding by an out-of-state driver cannot be more severe than the punishment for an in-state driver). Legal scholars and the courts have extensively debated the meaning of this privileges or immunities clause over the years; some have argued that it was supposed to extend the entire Bill of Rights (or at least the first eight amendments) to the states, while others have argued that only some rights are extended. In 1999, Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for a majority of the Supreme Court, argued in Saenz v. Roe that the clause protects the right to travel from one state to another.9 More recently, Justice Clarence Thomas argued in the 2010 McDonald v. Chicago ruling that the individual right to bear arms applied to the states because of this clause.10
The second provision of the Fourteenth Amendment that pertains to applying the Bill of Rights to the states is the due process clause, which says, “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” This provision is similar to the Fifth Amendment in that it also refers to “due process,” a term that generally means people must be treated fairly and impartially by government officials (or with what is commonly referred to as substantive due process). Although the text of the provision does not mention rights specifically, the courts have held in a series of cases that it indicates there are certain fundamental liberties that cannot be denied by the states. For example, in Sherbert v. Verner (1963), the Supreme Court ruled that states could not deny unemployment benefits to an individual who turned down a job because it required working on the Sabbath.11
Beginning in 1897, the Supreme Court has found that various provisions of the Bill of Rights protecting these fundamental liberties must be upheld by the states, even if their state constitutions and laws do not protect them as fully as the Bill of Rights does—or at all. This means there has been a process of selective incorporation of the Bill of Rights into the practices of the states; in other words, the Constitution effectively inserts parts of the Bill of Rights into state laws and constitutions, even though it doesn’t do so explicitly. When cases arise to clarify particular issues and procedures, the Supreme Court decides whether state laws violate the Bill of Rights and are therefore unconstitutional.
For example, under the Fifth Amendment a person can be tried in federal court for a felony—a serious crime—only after a grand jury issues an indictment indicating that it is reasonable to try the person for the crime in question. (A grand jury is a group of citizens charged with deciding whether there is enough evidence of a crime to prosecute someone.) But the Supreme Court has ruled that states don’t have to use grand juries as long as they ensure people accused of crimes are indicted using an equally fair process. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/04%3A_Civil_Liberties/4.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Identify the liberties and rights guaranteed by the first four amendments to the Constitution
• Explain why in practice these rights and liberties are limited
• Explain why interpreting some amendments has been controversial
We can broadly divide the provisions of the Bill of Rights into three categories. The First, Second, Third, and Fourth Amendments protect basic individual freedoms; the Fourth (partly), Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth protect people suspected or accused of criminal activity; and the Ninth and Tenth, are consistent with the framers’ view that the Bill of Rights is not necessarily an exhaustive list of all the rights people have and guarantees a role for state as well as federal government (Figure 4.5).
The First Amendment protects the right to freedom of religious conscience and practice and the right to free expression, particularly of political and social beliefs. The Second Amendment—perhaps the most controversial today—protects the right to defend yourself in your home or other property, as well as the collective right to protect the community as part of the militia. The Third Amendment prohibits the government from commandeering people’s homes to house soldiers, particularly in peacetime. Finally, the Fourth Amendment prevents the government from searching our persons or property or taking evidence without a warrant issued by a judge, with certain exceptions.
The First Amendment
The First Amendment is perhaps the most famous provision of the Bill of Rights; it is arguably also the most extensive, because it guarantees both religious freedoms and the right to express your views in public. Specifically, the First Amendment says:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Given the broad scope of this amendment, it is helpful to break it into its two major parts.
The first portion deals with religious freedom. However, it actually protects two related sorts of freedom: first, it protects people from having a set of religious beliefs imposed on them by the government, and second, it protects people from having their own religious beliefs restricted by government authorities.
The Establishment Clause
The first of these two freedoms is known as the establishment clause. Congress is prohibited from creating or promoting a state-sponsored religion (this now includes the states too). When the United States was founded, most countries around the world had an established church or religion, an officially sponsored set of religious beliefs and values. In Europe, bitter wars were fought between and within states, often because the established church of one territory was in conflict with that of another; wars and civil strife were common, particularly between states with Protestant and Catholic churches that had differing interpretations of Christianity. Even today, the legacy of these wars remains, most notably in Ireland, which has been divided between a mostly Catholic south and a largely Protestant north for nearly a century.
Many settlers in the United States found themselves on this continent as refugees from such wars; others came to find a place where they could follow their own religion with like-minded people in relative peace. So as a practical matter, even if the early United States had wanted to establish a single national religion, the diversity of religious beliefs would already have prevented it. Nonetheless the differences were small; most people were of European origin and professed some form of Christianity (although in private some of the founders, most notably Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Benjamin Franklin, held what today would be seen as Unitarian and/or deistic views). So for much of U.S. history, the establishment clause was not particularly important—the vast majority of citizens were Protestant Christians of some form, and since the federal government was relatively uninvolved in the day-to-day lives of the people, there was little opportunity for conflict. That said, there were some citizenship and office-holding restrictions on Jews within some of the states.
Worry about state sponsorship of religion in the United States began to reemerge in the latter part of the nineteenth century. An influx of immigrants from Ireland and eastern and southern Europe brought large numbers of Catholics, and states—fearing the new immigrants and their children would not assimilate—passed laws forbidding government aid to religious schools. New religious organizations, such as the Church of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church), Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many others, also emerged, blending aspects of Protestant beliefs with other ideas and teachings at odds with the more traditional Protestant churches of the era. At the same time, public schooling was beginning to take root on a wide scale. Since most states had traditional Protestant majorities and most state officials were Protestants themselves, the public school curriculum incorporated many Protestant features; at times, these features would come into conflict with the beliefs of children from other Christian sects or from other religious traditions.
The establishment clause today tends to be interpreted a bit more broadly than in the past; it not only forbids the creation of a “Church of the United States” or “Church of Ohio” it also forbids the government from favoring one set of religious beliefs over others or favoring religion (of any variety) over non-religion. Thus, the government cannot promote, say, Islamic beliefs over Sikh beliefs or belief in God over atheism or agnosticism (Figure 4.6).
The key question that faces the courts is whether the establishment clause should be understood as imposing, in Thomas Jefferson’s words, “a wall of separation between church and state.” In a 1971 case known as Lemon v. Kurtzman, the Supreme Court established the Lemon test for deciding whether a law or other government action that might promote a particular religious practice should be allowed to stand.13 The Lemon test has three criteria that must be satisfied for such a law or action to be found constitutional and remain in effect:
1. The action or law must not lead to excessive government entanglement with religion; in other words, policing the boundary between government and religion should be relatively straightforward and not require extensive effort by the government.
2. The action or law cannot either inhibit or advance religious practice; it should be neutral in its effects on religion.
3. The action or law must have some secular purpose; there must be some non-religious justification for the law.
For example, imagine your state decides to fund a school voucher program that allows children to attend private and parochial schools at public expense; the vouchers can be used to pay for school books and transportation to and from school. Would this voucher program be constitutional?
Let’s start with the secular-purpose prong of the test. Educating children is a clear, non-religious purpose, so the law has a secular purpose. The law would neither inhibit nor advance religious practice, so that prong would be satisfied. The remaining question—and usually the one on which court decisions turn—is whether the law leads to excessive government entanglement with religious practice. Given that transportation and school books generally have no religious purpose, there is little risk that paying for them would lead the state to much entanglement with religion. The decision would become more difficult if the funding were unrestricted in use or helped to pay for facilities or teacher salaries; if that were the case, it might indeed be used for a religious purpose, and it would be harder for the government to ensure that it wasn’t without audits or other investigations that could lead to too much government entanglement with religion.
The use of education as an example is not an accident; in fact, many of the court’s cases dealing with the establishment clause have involved education, particularly public education, because school-age children are considered a special and vulnerable population. Perhaps no subject affected by the First Amendment has been more controversial than the issue of prayer in public schools. Discussion about school prayer has been particularly fraught because in many ways it appears to bring the two religious liberty clauses into conflict with each other. The free exercise clause, discussed below, guarantees the right of individuals to practice their religion without government interference—and while the rights of children are not as extensive in all areas as those of adults, the courts have consistently ruled that the free exercise clause’s guarantee of religious freedom applies to children as well.
But some laws that may appear to establish certain religious practices are allowed. For example, the courts have permitted religiously inspired blue laws that limit working hours or even shutter businesses on Sunday, the Christian day of rest, because by allowing people to practice their (Christian) faith, such rules may help ensure the “health, safety, recreation, and general well-being” of citizens. They have allowed restrictions on the sale of alcohol and sometimes other goods on Sunday for similar reasons. Such laws in Bergen County, New Jersey, and especially its borough of Paramus, shutter many retail stores every Sunday, despite Bergen having one of the largest concentrations of retail space in the nation and five large enclosed shopping malls. While various political figures, including Chris Christie, have proposed repealing the laws, town and county officials have vowed to keep them in place as a "quality of life" element. Many citizens support them, while others cite the difficulty in doing their own shopping and the impact on smaller retailers in their rationale for eliminating the restrictions.
The meaning of the establishment clause has been controversial at times because, as a matter of course, government officials acknowledge that we live in a society with vigorous religious practice where most people believe in God—even if we disagree on what God is. Disputes often arise over how much the government can acknowledge this widespread religious belief. The courts have generally allowed for a certain tolerance of what is described as ceremonial deism, an acknowledgement of God or a creator that generally lacks any substantive religious content. For example, the national motto “In God We Trust,” which appears on our coins and paper money (Figure 4.7), is seen as more an acknowledgment that most citizens believe in God than any serious effort by government officials to promote religious belief and practice. This reasoning has also been used to permit the inclusion of the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance—a change that came about during the early years of the Cold War as a means of contrasting the United States with the “godless” Soviet Union.
In addition, the courts have allowed some religiously motivated actions by government agencies, such as clergy delivering prayers to open city council meetings and legislative sessions, on the presumption that—unlike school children—adult participants can distinguish between the government’s allowing someone to speak and endorsing that person’s speech. Yet, while some displays of religious codes (e.g., Ten Commandments) are permitted in the context of showing the evolution of law over the centuries (Figure 4.7), in other cases, these displays have been removed after state supreme court rulings. In Oklahoma, the courts ordered the removal of a Ten Commandments sculpture at the state capitol when other groups, including Satanists and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, attempted to get their own sculptures allowed there.
The Free Exercise Clause
The free exercise clause, on the other hand, limits the ability of the government to control or restrict religious practices. This portion of the First Amendment regulates not the government’s promotion of religion, but rather government suppression of religious beliefs and practices. Much of the controversy surrounding the free exercise clause reflects the way laws or rules that apply to everyone might apply to people with particular religious beliefs. For example, can a Jewish police officer whose religious belief, if followed strictly, requires her to observe Shabbat be compelled to work on a Friday night or during the day on Saturday? Or must the government accommodate this religious practice, even if it means the general law or rule in question is not applied equally to everyone?
In the 1930s and 1940s, cases involving Jehovah’s Witnesses demonstrated the difficulty of striking the right balance. In addition to following their church’s teaching that they should not participate in military combat, members refuse to participate in displays of patriotism, including saluting the flag and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and they regularly engage in door-to-door evangelism to recruit converts. These activities have led to frequent conflict with local authorities. Jehovah’s Witness children were punished in public schools for failing to salute the flag or recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and members attempting to evangelize were arrested for violating laws against door-to-door solicitation of customers. In early legal challenges brought by Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Supreme Court was reluctant to overturn state and local laws that burdened their religious beliefs.16 However, in later cases, the court was willing to uphold the rights of Jehovah’s Witnesses to proselytize and refuse to salute the flag or recite the Pledge.17
The rights of conscientious objectors—individuals who claim the right to refuse to perform military service on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion—have also been controversial, although many conscientious objectors have contributed service as non-combatant medics during wartime. To avoid serving in the Vietnam War, many people claimed to have a conscientious objection to military service on the basis that they believed this particular war was unwise or unjust. However, the Supreme Court ruled in Gillette v. United States that to claim to be a conscientious objector, a person must be opposed to serving in any war, not just some wars.18
Establishing a general framework for deciding whether a religious belief can trump general laws and policies has been a challenge for the Supreme Court. In the 1960s and 1970s, the court decided two cases in which it laid out a general test for deciding similar cases in the future. In both Sherbert v. Verner, a case dealing with unemployment compensation, and Wisconsin v. Yoder, which dealt with the right of Amish parents to homeschool their children, the court said that for a law to be allowed to limit or burden a religious practice, the government must meet two criteria.19 It must demonstrate both that it had a “compelling governmental interest” in limiting that practice and that the restriction was “narrowly tailored.” In other words, it must show there was a very good reason for the law in question and that the law was the only feasible way of achieving that goal. This standard became known as the Sherbert test. Since the burden of proof in these cases was on the government, the Supreme Court made it very difficult for the federal and state governments to enforce laws against individuals that would infringe upon their religious beliefs.
In 1990, the Supreme Court made a controversial decision substantially narrowing the Sherbert test in Employment Division v. Smith, more popularly known as “the peyote case.”20 This case involved two men who were members of the Native American Church, a religious organization that uses the hallucinogenic peyote plant as part of its sacraments. After being arrested for possession of peyote, the two men were fired from their jobs as counselors at a private drug rehabilitation clinic. When they applied for unemployment benefits, the state refused to pay on the basis that they had been dismissed for work-related reasons. The men appealed the denial of benefits and were initially successful, since the state courts applied the Sherbert test and found that the denial of unemployment benefits burdened their religious beliefs. However, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6–3 decision that the “compelling governmental interest” standard should not apply; instead, so long as the law was not designed to target a person’s religious beliefs in particular, it was not up to the courts to decide that those beliefs were more important than the law in question.
On the surface, a case involving the Native American Church seems unlikely to arouse much controversy. But because it replaced the Sherbert test with one that allowed more government regulation of religious practices, followers of other religious traditions grew concerned that state and local laws, even ones neutral on their face, might be used to curtail their religious practices. In 1993, in response to this decision, Congress passed a law known as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which was followed in 2000 by the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act after part of the RFRA was struck down by the Supreme Court. In addition, since 1990, twenty-one states have passed state RFRAs that include the Sherbert test in state law, and state court decisions in eleven states have enshrined the Sherbert test’s compelling governmental interest interpretation of the free exercise clause into state law.21
However, the RFRA itself has not been without its critics. While it has been relatively uncontroversial as applied to the rights of individuals, debate has emerged about whether businesses and other groups can be said to have religious liberty. In explicitly religious organizations, such as a fundamentalist congregation (fundamentalists adhere very strictly to biblical absolutes) or the Roman Catholic Church, it is fairly obvious members have a meaningful, shared religious belief. But the application of the RFRA has become more problematic in businesses and non-profit organizations whose owners or organizers may share a religious belief while the organization has some secular, non-religious purpose.
Such a conflict emerged in the 2014 Supreme Court case known as Burwell v. Hobby Lobby.22 The Hobby Lobby chain of stores sells arts and crafts merchandise at hundreds of stores; its founder, David Green, is a devout fundamentalist Christian whose beliefs include opposition to abortion and contraception. Consistent with these beliefs, he used his business to object to a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) requiring employer-backed insurance plans to include no-charge access to the morning-after pill, a form of emergency contraception, arguing that this requirement infringed on his conscience. Based in part on the federal RFRA, the Supreme Court agreed 5–4 with Green and Hobby Lobby’s position and said that Hobby Lobby and other closely held businesses did not have to provide employees free access to emergency contraception or other birth control if doing so would violate the religious beliefs of the business’ owners, because there were other less restrictive ways the government could ensure access to these services for Hobby Lobby’s employees (e.g., paying for them directly).
Despite ongoing controversy, however, the courts have consistently found some public interests sufficiently compelling to override the free exercise clause. For example, since the late nineteenth century, the courts have consistently held that people’s religious beliefs do not exempt them from the general laws against polygamy. Other potential acts in the name of religion that are also out of the question are drug use and human sacrifice. Yet, the public interest did not trump individual rights during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Supreme Court overturned California's ban on indoor gatherings.24 Other potential acts in the name of religion that are also out of the question are drug use and human sacrifice.
Freedom of Expression
Although the remainder of the First Amendment protects four distinct rights—free speech, press, assembly, and petition—we generally think of these rights today as encompassing a right to freedom of expression, particularly since the world’s technological evolution has blurred the lines between oral and written communication (i.e., speech and press) in the centuries since the First Amendment was written and adopted.
Controversies over freedom of expression were rare until the 1900s, even though government censorship was quite common. For example, during the Civil War, the Union post office refused to deliver newspapers that opposed the war or sympathized with the Confederacy, while allowing pro-war newspapers to be mailed. The emergence of photography and movies, in particular, led to new public concerns about morality, causing both state and federal politicians to censor lewd and otherwise improper content. At the same time, writers became more ambitious in their subject matter by including explicit references to sex and using obscene language, leading to government censorship of books and magazines.
Censorship reached its height during World War I. The United States was swept up in two waves of hysteria. Anti-German feeling was provoked by the actions of Germany and its allies leading up to the war, including the sinking of the RMS Lusitania and the Zimmerman Telegram, an effort by the Germans to conclude an alliance with Mexico against the United States. This concern was compounded in 1917 by the Bolshevik revolution against the more moderate interim government of Russia; the leaders of the Bolsheviks, most notably Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin, withdrew from the war against Germany and called for communist revolutionaries to overthrow the capitalist, democratic governments in western Europe and North America.
Americans who vocally supported the communist cause or opposed the war often found themselves in jail. In Schenck v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that people encouraging young men to dodge the draft could be imprisoned for doing so, arguing that recommending that people disobey the law was tantamount to “falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic” and thus presented a “clear and present danger” to public order.26 Similarly, communists and other revolutionary anarchists and socialists during the Red Scare after the war were prosecuted under various state and federal laws for supporting the forceful or violent overthrow of government. This general approach to political speech remained in place for the next fifty years.
In the 1960s, however, the Supreme Court’s rulings on free expression became more liberal, in response to the Vietnam War and the growing antiwar movement. In a 1969 case involving the Ku Klux Klan, Brandenburg v. Ohio, the Supreme Court found that only speech or writing that constituted a direct call or plan to imminent lawless action, an illegal act in the immediate future, could be suppressed; the mere advocacy of a hypothetical revolution was not enough.27 The Supreme Court also found that various forms of symbolic speech—wearing clothing like an armband that carried a political symbol or raising a fist in the air, for example—were subject to the same protections as written and spoken communication.
Milestone
Burning the U.S. Flag
Perhaps no act of symbolic speech has been as controversial in U.S. history as the burning of the flag (Figure 4.9). Citizens tend to revere the flag as a unifying symbol of the country in much the same way most people in Britain would treat the reigning queen (or king). States and the federal government have long had laws protecting the flag from being desecrated—defaced, damaged, or otherwise treated with disrespect. Perhaps in part because of these laws, people who have wanted to drive home a point in opposition to U.S. government policies have found desecrating the flag a useful way to gain public and press attention to their cause.
One such person was Gregory Lee Johnson, a member of various pro-communist and antiwar groups. In 1984, as part of a protest near the Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas, Johnson set fire to a U.S. flag that another protestor had torn from a flagpole. He was arrested, charged with “desecration of a venerated object” (among other offenses), and eventually convicted of that offense. However, in 1989, the Supreme Court decided in Texas v. Johnson that burning the flag was a form of symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment and found the law, as applied to flag desecration, to be unconstitutional.28
This court decision was strongly criticized, and Congress responded by passing a federal law, the Flag Protection Act, intended to overrule it; the act, too, was struck down as unconstitutional in 1990.29 Since then, Congress has tried and failed on several occasions to propose constitutional amendments allowing the states and federal government to re-criminalize flag desecration.
Should we amend the Constitution to allow Congress or the states to pass laws protecting the U.S. flag from desecration? Should we protect other national symbols as well, such as standing for the national anthem? Why or why not?
Freedom of the press is an important component of the right to free expression as well. In Near v. Minnesota, an early case regarding press freedoms, the Supreme Court ruled that the government generally could not engage in prior restraint; that is, states and the federal government could not in advance prohibit someone from publishing something without a very compelling reason.30 This standard was reinforced in 1971 in the Pentagon Papers case, in which the Supreme Court found that the government could not prohibit the New York Times and Washington Post newspapers from publishing the Pentagon Papers.31 These papers included materials from a secret history of the Vietnam War that had been compiled by the military. More specifically, the papers were compiled at the request of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and provided a study of U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. Daniel Ellsberg famously released passages of the Papers to the press to show that the United States had secretly enlarged the scope of the war by bombing Cambodia and Laos among other deeds while lying to the American public about doing so.
Although people who leak secret information to the media can still be prosecuted and punished, this does not generally extend to reporters and news outlets that pass that information on to the public. The Edward Snowden case is another good case in point. Snowden himself, rather than those involved in promoting the information that he shared, is the object of criminal prosecution.
Furthermore, the courts have recognized that government officials and other public figures might try to silence press criticism and avoid unfavorable news coverage by threatening a lawsuit for defamation of character. In the 1964 New York Times v. Sullivan case, the Supreme Court decided that public figures needed to demonstrate not only that a negative press statement about them was untrue but also that the statement was published or made with either malicious intent or “reckless disregard” for the truth.32 This ruling made it much harder for politicians to silence potential critics or to bankrupt their political opponents through the courts.
The right to freedom of expression is not absolute; several key restrictions limit our ability to speak or publish opinions under certain circumstances. We have seen that the Constitution protects most forms of offensive and unpopular expression, particularly political speech; however, incitement of a criminal act, “fighting words,” and genuine threats are not protected. So, for example, you can’t point at someone in front of an angry crowd and shout, “Let’s beat up that guy!” And the Supreme Court has allowed laws that ban threatening symbolic speech, such as burning a cross on the lawn of an African American family’s home (Figure 4.10).33 Finally, as we’ve just seen, defamation of character—whether in written form (libel) or spoken form (slander)—is not protected by the First Amendment, so people who are subject to false accusations can sue to recover damages, although criminal prosecutions of libel and slander are uncommon.
Another key exception to the right to freedom of expression is obscenity, acts or statements that are extremely offensive under current societal standards. Defining obscenity has been something of a challenge for the courts; Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said of obscenity, having watched pornography in the Supreme Court building, “I know it when I see it.” Into the early twentieth century, written work was frequently banned as being obscene, including works by noted authors such as James Joyce and Henry Miller, although today it is rare for the courts to uphold obscenity charges for written material alone. In 1973, the Supreme Court established the Miller test for deciding whether something is obscene: “(a) whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”34 However, the application of this standard has at times been problematic. In particular, the concept of “contemporary community standards” raises the possibility that obscenity varies from place to place; many people in New York or San Francisco might not bat an eye at something people in Memphis or Salt Lake City would consider offensive. The one form of obscenity that has been banned almost without challenge is child pornography, although even in this area the courts have found exceptions.
The courts have allowed censorship of less-than-obscene content when it is broadcast over the airwaves, particularly when it is available for anyone to receive. In general, these restrictions on indecency—a quality of acts or statements that offend societal norms or may be harmful to minors—apply only to radio and television programming broadcast when children might be in the audience, although most cable and satellite channels follow similar standards for commercial reasons. An infamous case of televised indecency occurred during the halftime show of the 2004 Super Bowl, during a performance by singer Janet Jackson in which a part of her clothing was removed by fellow performer Justin Timberlake, revealing her right breast. The network responsible for the broadcast, CBS, was ultimately presented with a fine of \$550,000 by the Federal Communications Commission, the government agency that regulates television broadcasting. However, CBS was not ultimately required to pay.
On the other hand, in 1997, the NBC network showed a broadcast of Schindler’s List, a film depicting events during the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, without any editing, so it included graphic nudity and depictions of violence. NBC was not fined or otherwise punished, suggesting there is no uniform standard for indecency. Similarly, in the 1990s Congress compelled television broadcasters to implement a television ratings system, enforced by a “V-Chip” in televisions and cable boxes, so parents could better control the television programming their children might watch. However, similar efforts to regulate indecent content on the Internet to protect children from pornography have largely been struck down as unconstitutional. This outcome suggests that technology has created new avenues for obscene material to be disseminated. The Children’s Internet Protection Act, however, requires K–12 schools and public libraries receiving Internet access using special E-rate discounts to filter or block access to obscene material and other material deemed harmful to minors, with certain exceptions.
The courts have also allowed laws that forbid or compel certain forms of expression by businesses, such as laws that require the disclosure of nutritional information on food and beverage containers and warning labels on tobacco products (Figure 4.11). The federal government requires the prices advertised for airline tickets to include all taxes and fees. Many states regulate advertising by lawyers. And, in general, false or misleading statements made in connection with a commercial transaction can be illegal if they constitute fraud.
Furthermore, the courts have ruled that, although public school officials are government actors, the First Amendment freedom of expression rights of children attending public schools are somewhat limited. In particular, in Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) and Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1988), the Supreme Court has upheld restrictions on speech that creates “substantial interference with school discipline or the rights of others”35 or is “reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns.”36 For example, the content of school-sponsored activities like school newspapers and speeches delivered by students can be controlled, either for the purposes of instructing students in proper adult behavior or to deter conflict between students.
Free expression includes the right to assemble peaceably and the right to petition government officials. This right even extends to members of groups whose views most people find abhorrent, such as American Nazis and the vehemently anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, whose members have become known for their protests at the funerals of U.S. soldiers who have died fighting in the war on terror (Figure).37 Free expression—although a broad right—is subject to certain constraints to balance it against the interests of public order. In particular, the nature, place, and timing of protests—but not their substantive content—are subject to reasonable limits. The courts have ruled that while people may peaceably assemble in a place that is a public forum, not all public property is a public forum. For example, the inside of a government office building or a college classroom—particularly while someone is teaching—is not generally considered a public forum.Rallies and protests on land that has other dedicated uses, such as roads and highways, can be limited to groups that have secured a permit in advance, and those organizing large gatherings may be required to give sufficient notice so government authorities can ensure there is enough security available. However, any such regulation must be viewpoint-neutral; the government may not treat one group differently than another because of its opinions or beliefs. For example, the government can’t permit a rally by a group that favors a government policy but forbid opponents from staging a similar rally. Finally, there have been controversial situations in which government agencies have established free-speech zones for protesters during political conventions, presidential visits, and international meetings in areas that are arguably selected to minimize their public audience or to ensure that the subjects of the protests do not have to encounter the protesters.
Since 2011, as part of the White House website, the Obama administration has included a dedicated system, “We the People: Your Voice in our Government,”for people to make petitions that will be reviewed by administration officials.
The Second Amendment
There has been increased conflict over the Second Amendment in recent years due to school shootings and gun violence. As a result, gun rights have become a highly charged political issue. The text of the Second Amendment is among the shortest of those included in the Constitution:
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
But the relative simplicity of its text has not kept it from controversy; arguably, the Second Amendment has become controversial in large part because of its text. Is this amendment merely a protection of the right of the states to organize and arm a “well regulated militia” for civil defense, or is it a protection of a “right of the people” as a whole to individually bear arms?
Before the Civil War, this would have been a nearly meaningless distinction. In most states at that time, white males of military age were considered part of the militia, liable to be called for service to put down rebellions or invasions, and the right “to keep and bear Arms” was considered a common-law right inherited from English law that predated the federal and state constitutions. The Constitution was not seen as a limitation on state power, and since the states expected all able-bodied free men to keep arms as a matter of course, what gun control there was mostly revolved around ensuring slaves (and their abolitionist allies) didn’t have guns.
With the beginning of selective incorporation after the Civil War, debates over the Second Amendment were reinvigorated. In the meantime, as part of their black codes designed to reintroduce most of the trappings of slavery, several southern states adopted laws that restricted the carrying and ownership of weapons by former slaves. Despite acknowledging a common-law individual right to keep and bear arms, in 1876 the Supreme Court declined, in United States v. Cruickshank, to intervene to ensure the states would respect it.38
In the following decades, states gradually began to introduce laws to regulate gun ownership. Federal gun control laws began to be introduced in the 1930s in response to organized crime, with stricter laws that regulated most commerce and trade in guns coming into force in the wake of the street protests of the 1960s. In the early 1980s, following an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, laws requiring background checks for prospective gun buyers were passed. During this period, the Supreme Court’s decisions regarding the meaning of the Second Amendment were ambiguous at best. In United States v. Miller, the Supreme Court upheld the 1934 National Firearms Act’s prohibition of sawed-off shotguns, largely on the basis that possession of such a gun was not related to the goal of promoting a “well regulated militia.”39 This finding was generally interpreted as meaning that the Second Amendment protected the right of the states to organize a militia, rather than an individual right, and thus lower courts generally found most firearm regulations—including some city and state laws that virtually outlawed the private ownership of firearms—to be constitutional.
The Third Amendment
The Third Amendment says in full:
“No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”
Most people consider this provision of the Constitution obsolete and unimportant. However, it is worthwhile to note its relevance in the context of the time: citizens remembered having their cities and towns occupied by British soldiers and mercenaries during the Revolutionary War, and they viewed the British laws that required the colonists to house soldiers particularly offensive, to the point that it had been among the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence.
Today it seems unlikely the federal government would need to house military forces in civilian lodgings against the will of property owners or tenants; however, perhaps in the same way we consider the Second and Fourth amendments, we can think of the Third Amendment as reflecting a broader idea that our homes lie within a “zone of privacy” that government officials should not violate unless absolutely necessary.
The Fourth Amendment
The Fourth Amendment sits at the boundary between general individual freedoms and the rights of those suspected of crimes. We saw earlier that perhaps it reflects James Madison’s broader concern about establishing an expectation of privacy from government intrusion at home. Another way to think of the Fourth Amendment is that it protects us from overzealous efforts by law enforcement to root out crime by ensuring that police have good reason before they intrude on people’s lives with criminal investigations.
The text of the Fourth Amendment is as follows:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
The amendment places limits on both searches and seizures: Searches are efforts to locate documents and contraband. Seizures are the taking of these items by the government for use as evidence in a criminal prosecution (or, in the case of a person, the detention or taking of the person into custody).
In either case, the amendment indicates that government officials are required to apply for and receive a search warrant prior to a search or seizure; this warrant is a legal document, signed by a judge, allowing police to search and/or seize persons or property. Since the 1960s, however, the Supreme Court has issued a series of rulings limiting the warrant requirement in situations where a person can be said to lack a “reasonable expectation of privacy” outside the home. Police can also search and/or seize people or property without a warrant if the owner or renter consents to the search, if there is a reasonable expectation that evidence may be destroyed or tampered with before a warrant can be issued (i.e., exigent circumstances), or if the items in question are in plain view of government officials.
Furthermore, the courts have found that police do not generally need a warrant to search the passenger compartment of a car (Figure 4.13), or to search people entering the United States from another country.43 When a warrant is needed, law enforcement officers do not need enough evidence to secure a conviction, but they must demonstrate to a judge that there is probable cause to believe a crime has been committed or evidence will be found. Probable cause is the legal standard for determining whether a search or seizure is constitutional or a crime has been committed; it is a lower threshold than the standard of proof at a criminal trial.
What happens if the police conduct an illegal search or seizure without a warrant and find evidence of a crime? In the 1961 Supreme Court case Mapp v. Ohio, the court decided that evidence obtained without a warrant that didn’t fall under one of the exceptions mentioned above could not be used as evidence in a state criminal trial, giving rise to the broad application of what is known as the exclusionary rule, which was first established in 1914 on a federal level in Weeks v. United States.46 The exclusionary rule doesn’t just apply to evidence found or to items or people seized without a warrant (or falling under an exception noted above); it also applies to any evidence developed or discovered as a result of the illegal search or seizure.
For example, if police search your home without a warrant, find bank statements showing large cash deposits on a regular basis, and discover you are engaged in some other crime in which they were previously unaware (e.g., blackmail, drugs, or prostitution), not only can they not use the bank statements as evidence of criminal activity—they also can’t prosecute you for the crimes they discovered during the illegal search. This extension of the exclusionary rule is sometimes called the “fruit of the poisonous tree,” because just as the metaphorical tree (i.e., the original search or seizure) is poisoned, so is anything that grows out of it.47
However, like the requirement for a search warrant, the exclusionary rule does have exceptions. The courts have allowed evidence to be used that was obtained without the necessary legal procedures in circumstances where police executed warrants they believed were correctly granted but in fact were not (“good faith” exception), and when the evidence would have been found anyway had they followed the law (“inevitable discovery”).
The requirement of probable cause also applies to arrest warrants. A person cannot generally be detained by police or taken into custody without a warrant, although most states allow police to arrest someone suspected of a felony crime without a warrant so long as probable cause exists, and police can arrest people for minor crimes or misdemeanors they have witnessed themselves.
The Supreme Court's 2012 and 2018 decisions in United States v. Jones and Carpenter v. United States extended the prohibition of illegal search and seizure to warrantless location tracking, either by installing a GPS device, as in the Jones case, or by accessing that information provided to cellular companies, as in Carpenter. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/04%3A_Civil_Liberties/4.03%3A_Securing_Basic_Freedoms.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Identify the rights of those suspected or accused of criminal activity
• Explain how Supreme Court decisions transformed the rights of the accused
• Explain why the Eighth Amendment is controversial regarding capital punishment
In addition to protecting the personal freedoms of individuals, the Bill of Rights protects those suspected or accused of crimes from various forms of unfair or unjust treatment. The prominence of these protections in the Bill of Rights may seem surprising. Given the colonists’ experience of what they believed to be unjust rule by British authorities, however, and the use of the legal system to punish rebels and their sympathizers for political offenses, the impetus to ensure fair, just, and impartial treatment to everyone accused of a crime—no matter how unpopular—is perhaps more understandable. What is more, the revolutionaries, and the eventual framers of the Constitution, wanted to keep the best features of English law as well.
In addition to the protections outlined in the Fourth Amendment, which largely pertain to investigations conducted before someone has been charged with a crime, the next four amendments pertain to those suspected, accused, or convicted of crimes, as well as people engaged in other legal disputes. At every stage of the legal process, the Bill of Rights incorporates protections for these people.
The Fifth Amendment
Many of the provisions dealing with the rights of the accused are included in the Fifth Amendment; accordingly, it is one of the longest in the Bill of Rights. The Fifth Amendment states in full:
“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
The first clause requires that serious crimes be prosecuted only after an indictment has been issued by a grand jury. However, several exceptions are permitted as a result of the evolving interpretation and understanding of this amendment by the courts, given the Constitution is a living document. First, the courts have generally found this requirement to apply only to felonies; less serious crimes can be tried without a grand jury proceeding. Second, this provision of the Bill of Rights does not apply to the states because it has not been incorporated; many states instead require a judge to hold a preliminary hearing to decide whether there is enough evidence to hold a full trial. Finally, members of the armed forces who are accused of crimes are not entitled to a grand jury proceeding.
The Fifth Amendment also protects individuals against double jeopardy, a process that subjects a suspect to prosecution twice for the same criminal act. No one who has been acquitted (found not guilty) of a crime can be prosecuted again for that crime. But the prohibition against double jeopardy has its own exceptions. The most notable is that it prohibits a second prosecution only at the same level of government (federal or state) as the first; the federal government can try you for violating federal law, even if a state or local court finds you not guilty of the same action. For example, in the early 1990s, several Los Angeles police officers accused of brutally beating motorist Rodney King during his arrest were acquitted of various charges in a state court, but some were later convicted in a federal court of violating King’s civil rights.
The double jeopardy rule does not prevent someone from recovering damages in a civil case—a legal dispute between individuals over a contract or compensation for an injury—that results from a criminal act, even if the person accused of that act is found not guilty. One famous case from the 1990s involved former football star and television personality O. J. Simpson. Simpson, although acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in a criminal court, was later found to be responsible for their deaths in a subsequent civil case and as a result was forced to forfeit most of his wealth to pay damages to their families.
Perhaps the most famous provision of the Fifth Amendment is its protection against self-incrimination, or the right to remain silent. This provision is so well known that we have a phrase for it: “taking the Fifth.” People have the right not to give evidence in court or to law enforcement officers that might constitute an admission of guilt or responsibility for a crime. Moreover, in a criminal trial, if someone does not testify in his or her own defense, the prosecution cannot use that failure to testify as evidence of guilt or imply that an innocent person would testify. This provision became embedded in the public consciousness following the Supreme Court’s 1966 ruling in Miranda v. Arizona, whereby suspects were required to be informed of their most important rights, including the right against self-incrimination, before being interrogated in police custody.48 However, contrary to some media depictions of the Miranda warning, law enforcement officials do not necessarily have to inform suspects of their rights before they are questioned in situations where they are free to leave.
Like the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause, the Fifth Amendment prohibits the federal government from depriving people of their “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Recall that due process is a guarantee that people will be treated fairly and impartially by government officials when the government seeks to fine or imprison them or take their personal property away from them. The courts have interpreted this provision to mean that government officials must establish consistent, fair procedures to decide when people’s freedoms are limited; in other words, citizens cannot be detained, their freedom limited, or their property taken arbitrarily or on a whim by police or other government officials. As a result, an entire body of procedural safeguards comes into play for the legal prosecution of crimes. However, the Patriot Act, passed into law after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, somewhat altered this notion.
The final provision of the Fifth Amendment has little to do with crime at all. The takings clause says that “private property [cannot] be taken for public use, without just compensation.” This provision, along with the due process clause’s provisions limiting the taking of property, can be viewed as a protection of individuals’ economic liberty: their right to obtain, use, and trade tangible and intangible property for their own benefit. For example, you have the right to trade your knowledge, skills, and labor for money through work or the use of your property, or trade money or goods for other things of value, such as clothing, housing, education, or food.
The significant recent controversy over economic liberty has been sparked by cities’ and states’ use of the power of eminent domain to take property for redevelopment. Traditionally, the main use of eminent domain was to obtain property for transportation corridors like railroads, highways, canals and reservoirs, and pipelines, which require fairly straight routes to be efficient. Because any single property owner could effectively block a particular route or extract an unfair price for land if it was the last piece needed to assemble a route, there are reasonable arguments for using eminent domain as a last resort in these circumstances, particularly for projects that convey substantial benefits to the public at large.
However, increasingly eminent domain has been used to allow economic development, with beneficiaries ranging from politically connected big businesses such as car manufacturers building new factories to highly profitable sports teams seeking ever-more-luxurious stadiums (Figure 4.14). And, while we traditionally think of property owners as relatively well-off people whose rights don’t necessarily need protecting since they can fend for themselves in the political system, frequently these cases pit lower- and middle-class homeowners against multinational corporations or multimillionaires with the ear of city and state officials. In a notorious 2005 case, Kelo v. City of New London, the Supreme Court sided with municipal officials taking homes in a middle-class neighborhood to obtain land for a large pharmaceutical company’s corporate campus.49 Ultimately, the campus was not built on the seized land and the case led to a public backlash against the use of eminent domain and legal changes in many states, making it harder for cities to take property from one private party and give it to another for economic redevelopment purposes. Eminent domain has once again become a salient issue in the context of the Trump administration's attempt to use the doctrine to seize several parcels of private property for the proposed border wall.50
The case led to a public backlash against the use of eminent domain and legal changes in many states, making it harder for cities to take property from one private party and give it to another for economic redevelopment purposes.
Some disputes over economic liberty have gone beyond the idea of eminent domain. In the past few years, the emergence of on-demand ride-sharing services like Lyft and Uber, direct sales by electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors, and short-term property rentals through companies like Airbnb have led to conflicts between people seeking to offer profitable services online, states and cities trying to regulate these businesses, and the incumbent service providers that compete with these new business models. In the absence of new public policies to clarify rights, the path forward is often determined through norms established in practice, by governments, or by court cases.
Sometimes, however, the legislative process seeks to clarify or improve the interpretation and application of amendments. The Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration Act is aimed at reducing the practice of civil forfeiture, in which governments and law enforcement entities seize property of people suspected of crimes, prior to conviction and sometimes without bringing formal charges. The government can take financial assets, jewelry, vehicles, art, and other items of value. The bipartisan bill backed by organizations ranging from the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation to the ACLU, would reduce what its Senate sponsor, Rand Paul, refers to as "policing for profit." Civil forfeiture was a mainstay of the war on drugs and contributed to the mass incarceration of people of color. It can be economically damaging even for those who are never charged or convicted, because in many cases seized property is not returned to its owner. Various court cases have ruled on aspects of the practice, but have not eliminated it derisively, leaving the opportunity for a new law to address it.
The sixth Amendment
Once someone has been charged with a crime and indicted, the next stage in a criminal case is typically the trial itself, unless a plea bargain is reached. The Sixth Amendment contains the provisions that govern criminal trials; in full, it states:
“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence [sic].”
The first of these guarantees is the right to have a speedy, public trial by an impartial jury. Although there is no absolute limit on the length of time that may pass between an indictment and a trial, the Supreme Court has said that excessively lengthy delays must be justified and balanced against the potential harm to the defendant.51 In effect, the speedy trial requirement protects people from being detained indefinitely by the government. Yet the courts have ruled that there are exceptions to the public trial requirement; if a public trial would undermine the defendant’s right to a fair trial, it can be held behind closed doors, while prosecutors can request closed proceedings only in certain, narrow circumstances (generally, to protect witnesses from retaliation or to guard classified information). In general, a prosecution must also be made in the “state and district” where the crime was committed; however, people accused of crimes may ask for a change of venue for their trial if they believe pre-trial publicity or other factors make it difficult or impossible for them to receive a fair trial where the crime occurred.
Link to Learning
Although the Supreme Court’s proceedings are not televised and there is no video of the courtroom, audio recordings of the oral arguments and decisions announced in cases have been made since 1955. A complete collection of these recordings can be found at the Oyez Project website along with full information about each case.
Most people accused of crimes decline their right to a jury trial. This choice is typically the result of a plea bargain, an agreement between the defendant and the prosecutor in which the defendant pleads guilty to the charge(s) in question, or perhaps to less serious charges, in exchange for more lenient punishment than he or she might receive if convicted after a full trial. There are a number of reasons why this might happen. The evidence against the accused may be so overwhelming that conviction is a near-certainty, so he or she might decide that avoiding the more serious penalty (perhaps even the death penalty) is better than taking the small chance of being acquitted after a trial. Someone accused of being part of a larger crime or criminal organization might agree to testify against others in exchange for lighter punishment. At the same time, prosecutors might want to ensure a win in a case that might not hold up in court by securing convictions for offenses they know they can prove, while avoiding a lengthy trial on other charges they might lose.
The requirement that a jury be impartial is a critical requirement of the Sixth Amendment. Both the prosecution and the defense are permitted to reject potential jurors who they believe are unable to fairly decide the case without prejudice. However, the courts have also said that the composition of the jury as a whole may in itself be prejudicial; potential jurors may not be excluded simply because of their race or sex, for example.52
The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right of those accused of crimes to present witnesses in their own defense (if necessary, compelling them to testify) and to confront and cross-examine witnesses presented by the prosecution. In general, the only testimony acceptable in a criminal trial must be given in a courtroom and be subject to cross-examination; hearsay, or testimony by one person about what another person has said, is generally inadmissible, although hearsay may be presented as evidence when it is an admission of guilt by the defendant or a “dying declaration” by a person who has passed away. Although both sides in a trial have the opportunity to examine and cross-examine witnesses, the judge may exclude testimony deemed irrelevant or prejudicial.
Finally, the Sixth Amendment guarantees the right of those accused of crimes to have the assistance of an attorney in their defense. Historically, many states did not provide attorneys to those accused of most crimes who could not afford one themselves; even when an attorney was provided, his or her assistance was often inadequate at best. This situation changed as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Gideon v. Wainwright (1963).53 Clarence Gideon, a poor drifter, was accused of breaking into and stealing money and other items from a pool hall in Panama City, Florida. Denied a lawyer, Gideon was tried and convicted and sentenced to a five-year prison term. While in prison—still without assistance of a lawyer—he drafted a handwritten appeal and sent it to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear his case (Figure 4.15). The justices unanimously ruled that Gideon, and anyone else accused of a serious crime, was entitled to the assistance of a lawyer, even if they could not afford one, as part of the general due process right to a fair trial.
The Supreme Court later extended the Gideon v. Wainwright ruling to apply to any case in which an accused person faced the possibility of “loss of liberty,” even for one day. The courts have also overturned convictions in which people had incompetent or ineffective lawyers through no fault of their own. The Gideonruling has led to an increased need for professional public defenders, lawyers who are paid by the government to represent those who cannot afford an attorney themselves, although some states instead require practicing lawyers to represent poor defendants on a pro bono basis (essentially, donating their time and energy to the case).
Link to Learning
The National Association for Public Defense represents public defenders, lobbying for better funding for public defense and improvements in the justice system in general.
Insider Perspective
Criminal Justice: Theory Meets Practice
Typically, a person charged with a serious crime will have a brief hearing before a judge to be informed of the charges against the person, to be made aware of the right to counsel, and to enter a plea. Other hearings may be held to decide on the admissibility of evidence seized or otherwise obtained by prosecutors.
If the two sides cannot agree on a plea bargain during this period, the next stage is the selection of a jury. A pool of potential jurors is summoned to the court and screened for impartiality, with the goal of seating twelve (in most states) and one or two alternates. All hear the evidence in the trial and unless an alternate must serve, the original twelve decide whether the evidence overwhelmingly points toward guilt, or innocence beyond a reasonable doubt.
In the trial itself, the lawyers for the prosecution and defense make opening arguments, followed by testimony by witnesses for the prosecution (and any cross-examination), and then testimony by witnesses for the defense, including the defendant if the defendant chooses. Additional prosecution witnesses may be called to rebut testimony by the defense. Finally, both sides make closing arguments. The judge then issues instructions to the jury, including an admonition not to discuss the case with anyone outside the jury room. The jury members leave the courtroom to enter the jury room and begin their deliberations (Figure 4.16).
The jurors pick a foreman or forewoman to coordinate their deliberations. They may ask to review evidence or to hear transcripts of testimony. They deliberate in secret and their decision must be unanimous. If they are unable to agree on a verdict after extensive deliberation, a mistrial may be declared, which in effect requires the prosecution to try the case all over again.
A defendant found not guilty of all charges will be immediately released unless other charges are pending (e.g., the defendant is wanted for a crime in another jurisdiction). If the defendant is found guilty of one or more offenses, the judge will choose an appropriate sentence based on the law and the circumstances. In the federal system, this sentence will typically be based on guidelines that assign point values to various offenses and facts in the case. If the prosecution is pursuing the death penalty, the jury will decide whether the defendant should be subject to capital punishment or life imprisonment.
The reality of court procedure is much less dramatic and exciting than what is typically portrayed in television shows and movies. Nonetheless, most Americans will participate in the legal system at least once in their lives as a witness, juror, or defendant.
Have you or any member of your family served on a jury? If so, was the experience a positive one? Did the trial proceed as expected? If you haven’t served on a jury, is it something you look forward to? Why or why not?
The Seventh Amendment
The Seventh Amendment deals with the rights of those engaged in civil disputes; as noted earlier, these are disagreements between individuals or businesses in which people are typically seeking compensation for some harm caused. For example, in an automobile accident, the person responsible is compelled to compensate any others (either directly or through his or her insurance company). Much of the work of the legal system consists of efforts to resolve civil disputes. The Seventh Amendment, in full, reads:
“In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.”
Because of this provision, all trials in civil cases must take place before a jury unless both sides waive their right to a jury trial. However, this right is not always incorporated; in many states, civil disputes—particularly those involving small sums of money, which may be heard by a dedicated small claims court—need not be tried in front of a jury and may instead be decided by a judge working alone.
The Seventh Amendment limits the ability of judges to reconsider questions of fact, rather than of law, that were originally decided by a jury. For example, if a jury decides a person was responsible for an action and the case is appealed, the appeals judge cannot decide someone else was responsible. This preserves the traditional common-law distinction that judges are responsible for deciding questions of law while jurors are responsible for determining the facts of a particular case.
The Eighth Amendment
The Eighth Amendment says, in full:
“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
Bail is a payment of money that allows a person accused of a crime to be freed pending trial; if you “make bail” in a case and do not show up for your trial, you will forfeit the money you paid. Since many people cannot afford to pay bail directly, they may instead get a bail bond, which allows them to pay a fraction of the money (typically 10 percent) to a person who sells bonds and who pays the full bail amount. (In most states, the bond seller makes money because the defendant does not get back the money for the bond, and most people show up for their trials.) However, people believed likely to flee or who represent a risk to the community while free may be denied bail and held in jail until their trial takes place.
It is rare for bail to be successfully challenged for being excessive. The Supreme Court has defined an excessive fine as one “so grossly excessive as to amount to deprivation of property without due process of law” or “grossly disproportional to the gravity of a defendant’s offense.”54 Historically, the courts have rarely struck down fines as excessive, though California and other states have recently passed legislation seeking to reform the more discriminatory aspects of the bail system.
In recent years the Supreme Court has issued a series of rulings substantially narrowing the application of the death penalty. As a result, defendants who have intellectual disabilities may not be executed.57 Defendants who were under eighteen when they committed an offense that would otherwise be subject to the death penalty may not be executed.58 The court has generally rejected the application of the death penalty to crimes that did not result in the death of another human being, most notably in the case of rape.59 And, while permitting the death penalty to be applied to murder in some cases, the Supreme Court has generally struck down laws that require the application of the death penalty in certain circumstances. Still, the United States is among ten countries with the most executions worldwide, with the Trump Justice Department pushing through a flurry of thirteen executions in the last four months of his administration, breaking with the 130-year-old precedent of pausing executions amid a presidential transition (Figure 4.17).
At the same time, however, it appears that the public mood may have shifted somewhat against the death penalty, perhaps due in part to an overall decline in violent crime. The reexamination of past cases through DNA evidence has revealed dozens in which people were wrongfully executed.60 For example, Claude Jones was executed for murder based on 1990-era DNA testing of a single hair that was determined at that time to be his but that with better DNA testing technology was later found to be that of the victim.61 Perhaps as a result of this and other cases, seven additional states have abolished capital punishment since 2007. As of 2015, nineteen states and the District of Columbia no longer apply the death penalty in new cases, and several other states do not carry out executions despite sentencing people to death.62 It remains to be seen whether this gradual trend toward the elimination of the death penalty by the states will continue, or whether the Supreme Court will eventually decide to follow former Justice Harry Blackmun’s decision to “no longer… tinker with the machinery of death” and abolish it completely. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/04%3A_Civil_Liberties/4.04%3A_The_Rights_of_Suspects.txt |
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Describe how the Ninth and Tenth Amendments reflect on our other rights
• Identify the two senses of “right to privacy” embodied in the Constitution
• Explain the controversy over privacy when applied to abortion and same-sex relationships
As this chapter has suggested, the provisions of the Bill of Rights have been interpreted and reinterpreted repeatedly over the past two centuries. However, the first eight amendments are largely silent on the status of traditional common law, which was the legal basis for many of the natural rights claimed by the framers in the Declaration of Independence. These amendments largely reflect the worldview of the time in which they were written; new technology and an evolving society and economy have presented us with novel situations that do not fit neatly into the framework established in the late eighteenth century.
In this section, we consider the final two amendments of the Bill of Rights and the way they affect our understanding of the Constitution as a whole. Rather than protecting specific rights and liberties, the Ninth and Tenth Amendments indicate how the Constitution and the Bill of Rights should be interpreted, and they lay out the residual powers of the state governments. We will also examine privacy rights, an area the Bill of Rights does not address directly; instead, the emergence of defined privacy rights demonstrates how the Ninth and Tenth Amendments have been applied to expand the scope of rights protected by the Constitution.
The Ninth Amendment
We saw above that James Madison and the other framers were aware they might endanger some rights if they listed a few in the Constitution and omitted others. To ensure that those interpreting the Constitution would recognize that the listing of freedoms and rights in the Bill of Rights was not exhaustive, the Ninth Amendment states:
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
These rights “retained by the people” include the common-law and natural rights inherited from the laws, traditions, and past court decisions of England. To this day, we regularly exercise and take for granted rights that aren’t written down in the federal constitution, like the right to marry, the right to seek opportunities for employment and education, and the right to have children and raise a family. Supreme Court justices over the years have interpreted the Ninth Amendment in different ways; some have argued that it was intended to extend the rights protected by the Constitution to those natural and common-law rights, while others have argued that it does not prohibit states from changing their constitutions and laws to modify or limit those rights as they see fit.
Critics of a broad interpretation of the Ninth Amendment point out that the Constitution provides ways to protect newly formalized rights through the amendment process. For example, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the right to vote was gradually expanded by a series of constitutional amendments (the Fifteenth and Nineteenth), even though at times this expansion was the subject of great public controversy. However, supporters of a broad interpretation of the Ninth Amendment point out that the rights of the people—particularly people belonging to political or demographic minorities—should not be subject to the whims of popular majorities. One right the courts have said may be at least partially based on the Ninth Amendment is a general right to privacy, discussed later in the chapter.
The Tenth Amendment
The Tenth Amendment is as follows:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Unlike the other provisions of the Bill of Rights, this amendment focuses on power rather than rights. The courts have generally read the Tenth Amendment as merely stating, as Chief Justice Harlan Stone put it, a “truism that all is retained which has not been surrendered.”63 In other words, rather than limiting the power of the federal government in any meaningful way, it simply restates what is made obvious elsewhere in the Constitution: the federal government has both enumerated and implied powers, but where the federal government does not (or chooses not to) exercise power, the states may do so. Others read this final "or" as capturing the essential question of U.S. political history: do the states who agreed to unite in a federal system remain sovereign, or once united, is it the federal government's responsibility to protect the power of the people—including against states that might infringe upon them?
At times, politicians and state governments have argued that the Tenth Amendment means states can engage in interposition or nullification by blocking federal government laws and actions they deem to exceed the constitutional powers of the national government. But the courts have rarely been sympathetic to these arguments, except when the federal government appears to be directly requiring state and local officials to do something. For example, in 1997 the Supreme Court struck down part of a federal law that required state and local law enforcement to participate in conducting background checks for prospective gun purchasers, while in 2012 the court ruled that the government could not compel states to participate in expanding the joint state-federal Medicaid program by taking away all their existing Medicaid funding if they refused to do so.64
However, the Tenth Amendment also allows states to guarantee rights and liberties more fully or extensively than the federal government does, or to include additional rights. For example, many state constitutions guarantee the right to a free public education, several states give victims of crimes certain rights, and eighteen states include the right to hunt game and/or fish.65 A number of state constitutions explicitly guarantee equal rights for men and women. Starting with Wyoming in 1869, some some states permitted women to vote before the Nineteenth Amendment secured the franchise for all women in 1920. Similarly, people aged 18–20 could vote in a few states before the Twenty-Sixth Amendment came into force in 1971. As we will see below, several states also explicitly recognize a right to privacy. State courts at times have interpreted state constitutional provisions to include broader protections for basic liberties than their federal counterparts. For example, though people do not generally have the right to free speech and assembly on private property owned by others without their permission, California’s constitutional protection of freedom of expression was extended to portions of some privately owned shopping centers by the state’s supreme court (Figure 4.18).66
These state protections do not extend the other way, however. If the federal government passes a law or adopts a constitutional amendment that restricts rights or liberties, or a Supreme Court decision interprets the Constitution in a way that narrows these rights, the state’s protection no longer applies. For example, if Congress decided to outlaw hunting and fishing and the Supreme Court decided this law was a valid exercise of federal power, the state constitutional provisions that protect the right to hunt and fish would effectively be meaningless. More concretely, federal laws that control weapons and drugs override state laws and constitutional provisions that otherwise permit them. While federal marijuana policies are not strictly enforced, state-level marijuana policies in Colorado and Washington provide a prominent exception to that clarity.
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Student-Led Constitutional Change
Although the United States has not had a national constitutional convention since 1787, the states have generally been much more willing to revise their constitutions. In 1998, two politicians in Texas decided to do something a little bit different: they enlisted the help of college students at Angelo State University to draft a completely new constitution for the state of Texas, which was then formally proposed to the state legislature.67 Although the proposal failed, it was certainly a valuable learning experience for the students who took part.
Each state has a different process for changing its constitution. In some, like California and Mississippi, voters can propose amendments to their state constitution directly, bypassing the state legislature. In others, such as Tennessee and Texas, the state legislature controls the process of initiation. The process can affect the sorts of amendments likely to be considered; it shouldn’t be surprising, for example, that amendments limiting the number of terms legislators can serve in office have been much more common in states where the legislators themselves have no say in whether such provisions are adopted.
What rights or liberties do you think ought to be protected by your state constitution that aren’t already? Or would you get rid of some of these protections instead? Find a copy of your current state constitution, read through it, and decide. Then find out what steps would be needed to amend your state’s constitution to make the changes you would like to see.
The Right to Privacy
Although the term privacy does not appear in the Constitution or Bill of Rights, scholars have interpreted several Bill of Rights provisions as an indication that James Madison and Congress sought to protect a common-law right to privacy as it would have been understood in the late eighteenth century: a right to be free of government intrusion into our personal life, particularly within the bounds of the home. For example, we could perhaps see the Second Amendment as standing for the common-law right to self-defense in the home; the Third Amendment as a statement that government soldiers should not be housed in anyone’s home; the Fourth Amendment as setting a high legal standard for allowing agents of the state to intrude on someone’s home; and the due process and takings clauses of the Fifth Amendment as applying an equally high legal standard to the government’s taking a home or property (reinforced after the Civil War by the Fourteenth Amendment). Alternatively, we could argue that the Ninth Amendment anticipated the existence of a common-law right to privacy, among other rights, when it acknowledged the existence of basic, natural rights not listed in the Bill of Rights or the body of the Constitution itself.68 Lawyers Samuel D. Warren and Louis Brandeis (the latter a future Supreme Court justice) famously developed the concept of privacy rights in a law review article published in 1890.69
Although several state constitutions do list the right to privacy as a protected right, the explicit recognition by the Supreme Court of a right to privacy in the U.S. Constitution emerged only in the middle of the twentieth century. In 1965, the court spelled out the right to privacy for the first time in Griswold v. Connecticut, a case that struck down a state law forbidding even married individuals to use any form of contraception.70 Although many subsequent cases before the Supreme Court also dealt with privacy in the course of intimate, sexual conduct, the issue of privacy matters as well in the context of surveillance and monitoring by government and private parties of our activities, movements, and communications. Both these senses of privacy are examined below.
Sexual Privacy
Although the Griswold case originally pertained only to married couples, in 1972 it was extended to apply the right to obtain contraception to unmarried people as well.71 Although neither decision was entirely without controversy, the “sexual revolution” taking place at the time may well have contributed to a sense that anti-contraception laws were at the very least dated, if not in violation of people’s rights. The contraceptive coverage controversy surrounding the Hobby Lobby case shows that this topic remains relevant.
The Supreme Court’s application of the right to privacy doctrine to abortion rights proved far more problematic, legally and politically. In 1972, four states permitted abortions without restrictions, while thirteen allowed abortions “if the pregnant woman’s life or physical or mental health were endangered, if the fetus would be born with a severe physical or mental defect, or if the pregnancy had resulted from rape or incest”; abortions were completely illegal in Pennsylvania and heavily restricted in the remaining states.72 On average, several hundred American women a year died as a result of “back alley abortions” in the 1960s.
The legal landscape changed dramatically as a result of the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade,73 in which the Supreme Court decided the right to privacy encompassed a right for women to terminate a pregnancy, at least under certain scenarios. The justices ruled that while the government did have an interest in protecting the “potentiality of human life,” nonetheless this had to be balanced against the interests of both women’s health and women’s right to decide whether to have an abortion. Accordingly, the court established a framework for deciding whether abortions could be regulated based on the fetus’s viability (i.e., potential to survive outside the womb) and the stage of pregnancy, with no restrictions permissible during the first three months of pregnancy (i.e., the first trimester), during which abortions were deemed safer for women than childbirth itself.
Beyond the issues of contraception and abortion, the right to privacy has been interpreted to encompass a more general right for adults to have noncommercial, consensual sexual relationships in private. However, this legal development is relatively new; as recently as 1986, the Supreme Court ruled that states could still criminalize sex acts between two people of the same sex.77 That decision was overturned in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas, which invalidated state laws that criminalized sodomy.78
The state and national governments still have leeway to regulate sexual morality to some degree; “anything goes” is not the law of the land, even for actions that are consensual. The Supreme Court has declined to strike down laws in a few states that outlaw the sale of vibrators and other sex toys. Prostitution remains illegal in every state except in certain rural counties in Nevada; both polygamy (marriage to more than one other person) and bestiality (sex with animals) are illegal everywhere. And, as we saw earlier, the states may regulate obscene materials and, in certain situations, material that may be harmful to minors or otherwise indecent; to this end, states and localities have sought to ban or regulate the production, distribution, and sale of pornography.
Privacy of Communications and Property
Another example of heightened concerns about privacy in the modern era is the reality that society is under pervasive surveillance. In the past, monitoring the public was difficult at best. During the Cold War, regimes in the Soviet bloc employed millions of people as domestic spies and informants in an effort to suppress internal dissent through constant monitoring of the general public. Not only was this effort extremely expensive in terms of the human and monetary capital it required, but it also proved remarkably ineffective. Groups like the East German Stasi and the Romanian Securitate were unable to suppress the popular uprisings that undermined communist one-party rule in most of those countries in the late 1980s.
Technology has now made it much easier to track and monitor people. Police cars and roadways are equipped with cameras that can photograph the license plate of every passing car or truck and record it in a database; while allowing police to recover stolen vehicles and catch fleeing suspects, this data can also be used to track the movements of law-abiding citizens. But law enforcement officials don’t even have to go to this much work; millions of car and truck drivers pay tolls electronically without stopping at toll booths thanks to transponders attached to their vehicles, which can be read by scanners well away from any toll road or bridge to monitor traffic flow or any other purpose (Figure 4.20). The pervasive use of GPS (Global Positioning System) raises similar issues.
Even pedestrians and cyclists are relatively easy to track today. Cameras pointed at sidewalks and roadways can employ facial recognition software to identify people as they walk or bike around a city. Many people carry smartphones that constantly report their location to the nearest cell phone tower and broadcast a beacon signal to nearby wireless hotspots and Bluetooth devices. Police can set up a small device called a Stingray that identifies and tracks all cell phones that attempt to connect to it within a radius of several thousand feet. With the right software, law enforcement and criminals can remotely activate a phone’s microphone and camera, effectively planting a bug in someone’s pocket without the person even knowing it.
These aren’t just gimmicks in a bad science fiction movie; businesses and governments have openly admitted they are using these methods. Research shows that even metadata—information about the messages we send and the calls we make and receive, such as time, location, sender, and recipient but excluding their content—can tell governments and businesses a lot about what someone is doing. Even when this information is collected in an anonymous way, it is often still possible to trace it back to specific individuals, since people travel and communicate in largely predictable patterns.
The next frontier of privacy issues may well be the increased use of drones, small preprogrammed or remotely piloted aircraft. Drones can fly virtually undetected and monitor events from overhead. They can peek into backyards surrounded by fences, and using infrared cameras they can monitor activity inside houses and other buildings. The Fourth Amendment was written in an era when finding out what was going on in someone’s home meant either going inside or peeking through a window; applying its protections today, when seeing into someone’s house can be as easy as looking at a computer screen miles away, is no longer simple.
In the United States, many advocates of civil liberties are concerned that laws such as the USA PATRIOT Act (i.e., Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act), passed weeks after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, have given the federal government too much power by making it easy for officials to seek and obtain search warrants or, in some cases, to bypass warrant requirements altogether. Critics have argued that the Patriot Act has largely been used to prosecute ordinary criminals, in particular drug dealers, rather than terrorists as intended. Most European countries, at least on paper, have opted for laws that protect against such government surveillance, perhaps mindful of past experience with communist and fascist regimes. European countries also tend to have stricter laws limiting the collection, retention, and use of private data by companies, which makes it harder for governments to obtain and use that data. Most recently, the battle between Apple Inc. and the National Security Agency (NSA) over whether Apple should allow the government access to key information that is encrypted has made the discussion of this tradeoff salient once again. A recent court outcome in the United States suggests that America may follow Europe's lead. In Carpenter v. United States (2018), the first case of its kind, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, under the Fourth Amendment, police need a search warrant to gather phone location data as evidence to be used in trials.79
Link to Learning
Several groups lobby the government, such as The Electronic Frontier Foundation and The Electronic Privacy Information Center, on issues related to privacy in the information age, particularly on the Internet.
All this is not to say that technological surveillance tools do not have value or are inherently bad. They can be used for many purposes that would benefit society and, perhaps, even enhance our freedoms. Spending less time stuck in traffic because we know there’s been an accident—detected automatically because the cell phones that normally whiz by at the speed limit are now crawling along—gives us time to spend on more valuable activities. Capturing criminals and terrorists by recognizing them or their vehicles before they can continue their agendas will protect the life, liberty, and property of the public at large. At the same time, however, the emergence of these technologies means calls for vigilance and limits on what businesses and governments can do with the information they collect and the length of time they may retain it. We might also be concerned about how this technology could be used by more oppressive regimes. If the technological resources that are at the disposal of today’s governments had been available to the East Germany Stasi and the Romanian Securitate, would those repressive regimes have fallen? How much privacy and freedom should citizens sacrifice in order to feel safe? | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/04%3A_Civil_Liberties/4.05%3A__Interpreting_the_Bill_of_Rights.txt |
blue law
a law originally created to uphold a religious or moral standard, such as a prohibition against selling alcohol on Sundays
civil liberties
limitations on the power of government, designed to ensure personal freedoms
civil rights
guarantees of equal treatment by government authorities
common-law right
a right of the people rooted in legal tradition and past court rulings, rather than the Constitution
conscientious objector
a person who claims the right to refuse to perform military service on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion
double jeopardy
a prosecution pursued twice at the same level of government for the same criminal action
due process clause
provisions of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments that limit government power to deny people “life, liberty, or property” on an unfair basis
economic liberty
the right of individuals to obtain, use, and trade things of value for their own benefit
eminent domain
the power of government to take or use property for a public purpose after compensating its owner; also known as the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment
establishment clause
the provision of the First Amendment that prohibits the government from endorsing a state-sponsored religion; interpreted as preventing government from favoring some religious beliefs over others or religion over non-religion
exclusionary rule
a requirement, from Supreme Court case Mapp v. Ohio, that evidence obtained as a result of an illegal search or seizure cannot be used to try someone for a crime
free exercise clause
the provision of the First Amendment that prohibits the government from regulating religious beliefs and practices
Miranda warning
a statement by law enforcement officers informing a person arrested, or subject to interrogation, of that person's rights
obscenity
acts or statements that are extremely offensive by contemporary standards
Patriot Act
a law passed by Congress in the wake of the 9/11 attacks that broadened federal powers to monitor electronic communications; the full name is the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act)
plea bargain
an agreement between the defendant and the prosecutor in which the defendant pleads guilty to the charge(s) in question or perhaps to less serious charges, in exchange for more lenient punishment than if convicted after a full trial
prior restraint
a government action that stops someone from doing something before they are able to do it (e.g., forbidding people to publish a book they plan to release)
probable cause
legal standard for determining whether a search or seizure is constitutional or a crime has been committed; a lower threshold than the standard of proof needed at a criminal trial
right to privacy
the right to be free of government intrusion
search warrant
a legal document, signed by a judge, allowing police to search and/or seize persons or property
selective incorporation
the gradual process of making some guarantees of the Bill of Rights (so far) apply to state governments and the national government
self-incrimination
an action or statement that admits guilt or responsibility for a crime
Sherbert test
a standard for deciding whether a law violates the free exercise clause; a law will be struck down unless there is a “compelling governmental interest” at stake and it accomplishes its goal by the “least restrictive means” possible
symbolic speech
a form of expression that does not use writing or speech but nonetheless communicates an idea (e.g., wearing an article of clothing to show solidarity with a group)
undue burden test
a means of deciding whether a law that makes it harder for women to seek abortions is constitutional | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/04%3A_Civil_Liberties/4.06%3A_Key_Terms.txt |
What Are Civil Liberties?
The Bill of Rights is designed to protect the freedoms of individuals from interference by government officials. Originally these protections were applied only to actions by the national government; different sets of rights and liberties were protected by state constitutions and laws, and even when the rights themselves were the same, the level of protection for them often differed by definition across the states. Since the Civil War, as a result of the passage and ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment and a series of Supreme Court decisions, most of the Bill of Rights’ protections of civil liberties have been expanded to cover actions by state governments as well through a process of selective incorporation. Nonetheless there is still vigorous debate about what these rights entail and how they should be balanced against the interests of others and of society as a whole.
Securing Basic Freedoms
The first four amendments of the Bill of Rights protect citizens’ key freedoms from governmental intrusion. The First Amendment limits the government’s ability to impose certain religious beliefs on the people, or to limit the practice of one’s own religion. The First Amendment also protects freedom of expression by the public, the media, and organized groups via rallies, protests, and the petition of grievances. The Second Amendment today protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms for personal defense in the home, while the Third Amendment limits the ability of the government to allow the military to occupy civilians’ homes except under extraordinary circumstances. Finally, the Fourth Amendment protects our persons, homes, and property from unreasonable searches and seizures, and it protects the people from unlawful arrests. However, all these provisions are subject to limitations, often to protect the interests of public order, the good of society as a whole, or to balance the rights of some citizens against those of others.
The Rights of Suspects
The rights of those suspected, accused, and convicted of crimes, along with rights in civil cases and economic liberties, are protected by the second major grouping of amendments within the Bill of Rights. The Fifth Amendment secures various procedural safeguards, protects suspects’ right to remain silent, forbids trying someone twice at the same level of government for the same criminal act, and limits the taking of property for public uses. The Sixth Amendment ensures fairness in criminal trials, including through a fair and speedy trial by an impartial jury, the right to assistance of counsel, and the right to examine and compel testimony from witnesses. The Seventh Amendment ensures the right to jury trials in most civil cases (but only at the federal level). Finally, the Eighth Amendment prohibits excessive fines and bails, as well as “cruel and unusual punishments,” although the scope of what is cruel and unusual is subject to debate.
Interpreting the Bill of Rights
The interrelationship of constitutional amendments continues to be settled through key court cases over time. Because it was not explicitly laid out in the Constitution, privacy rights required clarification through public laws and court precedents. Important cases addressing the right to privacy relate to abortion, sexual behavior, internet activity, and the privacy of personal texts and cell phone calls. The place where we draw the line between privacy and public safety is an ongoing discussion in which the courts are a significant player. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/04%3A_Civil_Liberties/4.07%3A_Summary.txt |
1. The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution because ________.
1. key states refused to ratify the Constitution unless it was added
2. Alexander Hamilton believed it was necessary
3. it was part of the Articles of Confederation
4. it was originally part of the Declaration of Independence
Answer
A
1. An example of a right explicitly protected by the Constitution as drafted at the Constitutional Convention is the ________.
1. right to free speech
2. right to keep and bear arms
3. right to a writ of habeas corpus
4. right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment
2. The Fourteenth Amendment was critically important for civil liberties because it ________.
1. guaranteed freed men the right to vote
2. outlawed slavery
3. helped start the process of selective incorporation of the Bill of Rights
4. allowed the states to continue to enact Black codes
Answer
C
1. Briefly explain the difference between civil liberties and civil rights.
2. Briefly explain the concept of selective incorporation, and why it became necessary.
Answer
Selective incorporation is the process of expanding the application of the Bill of Rights to also include the states. It became necessary in order to guarantee people’s civil liberties equally across all states.
1. Which of the following provisions is not part of the First Amendment?
1. the right to keep and bear arms
2. the right to peaceably assemble
3. the right to free speech
4. the protection of freedom of religion
2. The Third Amendment can be thought of as ________.
1. reinforcing the right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment
2. ensuring the right to freedom of the press
3. forming part of a broader conception of privacy in the home that is also protected by the Second and Fourth Amendments
4. strengthening the right to a jury trial in criminal cases
Answer
C
1. The Fourth Amendment’s requirement for a warrant ________.
1. applies only to searches of the home
2. applies only to the seizure of property as evidence
3. does not protect people who rent or lease property
4. does not apply when there is a serious risk that evidence will be destroyed before a warrant can be issued
2. Explain the difference between the establishment clause and the free exercise clause, and explain how these two clauses work together to guarantee religious freedoms.
Answer
The two clauses together protect religious liberty but from opposite directions. The establishment clause prevents governments from having an official religion (thus giving all religions a chance to flourish), while the free exercise clause clearly empowers individuals to practice as they wish.
1. Explain the difference between the collective rights and individual rights views of the Second Amendment. Which of these views did the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller reflect?
2. The Supreme Court case known as Kelo v. City of New London was controversial because it ________.
1. allowed greater use of the power of eminent domain
2. regulated popular ride-sharing services like Lyft and Uber
3. limited the application of the death penalty
4. made it harder for police to use evidence obtained without a warrant
Answer
A
1. Which of the following rights is not protected by the Sixth Amendment?
1. the right to trial by an impartial jury
2. the right to cross-examine witnesses in a trial
3. the right to remain silent
4. the right to a speedy trial
2. The double jeopardy rule in the Bill of Rights forbids which of the following?
1. prosecuting someone in a state court for a criminal act they had been acquitted of in federal court
2. prosecuting someone in federal court for a criminal act they had been acquitted of in a state court
3. suing someone for damages for an act the person was found not guilty of
4. none of these options
Answer
D
1. The Supreme Court has decided that the death penalty ________.
1. is always cruel and unusual punishment
2. is never cruel and unusual punishment
3. may be applied only to acts of terrorism
4. may not be applied to those who were under 18 when they committed a crime
2. Explain why someone accused of a crime might negotiate a plea bargain rather than exercising the right to a trial by jury.
Answer
Someone accused of a crime may take a plea bargain because it reflects a clear path forward rather than the uncertainty of a trial. Typically plea bargains result in weaker punishments than does a court trial.
1. Explain the difference between a criminal case and a civil case.
2. Which of the following rights is not explicitly protected by some state constitutions?
1. the right to hunt
2. the right to privacy
3. the right to polygamous marriage
4. the right to a free public education
Answer
C
1. The right to privacy has been controversial for all the following reasons except ________.
1. it is not explicitly included in the Constitution or Bill of Rights
2. it has been interpreted to protect women’s right to have an abortion
3. it has been used to overturn laws that have substantial public support
4. most U.S. citizens today believe the government should be allowed to outlaw birth control
2. Which of the following rules has the Supreme Court said is an undue burden on the right to have an abortion?
1. Women must make more than one visit to an abortion clinic before the procedure can be performed.
2. Minors must gain the consent of a parent or judge before seeking an abortion.
3. Women must notify their spouses before having an abortion.
4. Women must be informed of the health consequences of having an abortion.
Answer
C
1. A major difference between most European countries and the United States today is ________.
1. most Europeans don’t use technologies that can easily be tracked
2. laws in Europe more strictly regulate how government officials can use tracking technology
3. there are more legal restrictions on how the U.S. government uses tracking technology than in Europe
4. companies based in Europe don’t have to comply with U.S. privacy laws
2. Explain the difference between a right listed in the Bill of Rights and a common-law right.
Answer
A right listed in the Bill of Rights is afforded clearer protection than one developed incrementally through court precedents.
1. Describe two ways in which new technological developments challenge traditional notions of privacy.
4.09: Critical Thinking Questions
1. The framers of the Constitution were originally reluctant to include protections of civil liberties and rights in the Constitution. Do you think this would be the case if the Constitution were written today? Why or why not?
2. Which rights and freedoms for citizens do you think our government does a good job of protecting? Why? Which rights and freedoms could it better protect, and how?
3. In which areas do you think people’s rights and liberties are at risk of government intrusion? Why? Which solutions would you propose?
4. What are the implications of the Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby?
5. How does the provision for and the protection of individual rights and freedoms consume government resources of time and money? Since these are in effect the people’s resources, do you think they are being well spent? Why or why not?
6. There is an old saying that it’s better for 100 guilty people to go free than for an innocent person to be unjustly punished. Do you agree? Why or why? What do you think is the right balance for our society to strike?
4.10: Suggestions for Further Study
Abraham, Henry J. 2003. Freedom and the Court. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ackerman, Bruce. 2007. Before the Next Attack: Preserving Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Bilder, Mary Sarah. 2008. The Transatlantic Constitution: Colonial Legal Culture and the Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Carter, Barton T., Marc A. Franklin, and Jay B. Wright. 1993. The First Amendment and the Fifth Estate: Regulation of Electronic Mass Media. Westbury, NY: Foundation Press.
Domino, John C. 2002. Civil Rights and Liberties in the 21st Century, 2nd ed. New York: Longman.
Garrow, David J. 1998. Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Levy, Leonard. 1968. Origins of the Fifth Amendment: The Right Against Self-Incrimination. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lewis, Anthony. 2007. Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment. New York: Basic Books.
Lukianoff, Greg. 2002. Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate. New York: Encounter Books.
Schwarz, John E. 2005. Freedom Reclaimed: Rediscovering the American Vision. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Waldman, Michael. 2015. The Second Amendment: A Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/04%3A_Civil_Liberties/4.08%3A_Review_Questions.txt |
1. Mary Louise Kelly, Karen Zamora, Mia Venkat, and Sarah Handel, "Wave of 'Anti-Protest' Bills Could Threaten First Amendment," NPR, 30 April 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/04/30/99254...irst-amendment.
2. Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, 391 U.S. 430 (1968); Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737 (1984).
3. "Family Separation under the Trump Administration - a Timeline," Southern Poverty Law Center, 17 June 2020, https://www.splcenter.org/news/2020/...ation-timeline.
4. Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866).
5. Ex parte Quirin, 317 U.S. 1 (1942); See William H. Rehnquist. 1998. All the Laws but One: Civil Liberties in Wartime. New York: William Morrow.
6. American History from Revolution to Reconstruction and Beyond, “Madison Speech Proposing the Bill of Rights June 8 1789,” http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/...une-8-1789.php (March 4, 2016).
7. Constitution Society, “To the Citizens of the State of New-York,” http://www.constitution.org/afp/brutus02.htm (March 4, 2016).
8. Barron v. Baltimore, 32 U.S. 243 (1833).
9. Saenz v. Roe, 526 U.S. 489 (1999).
10. McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010).
11. Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398 (1963).
12. Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 (1931).
13. Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971).
14. Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962).
15. See, in particular, Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290 (2000), which found that the school district’s including a student-led prayer at high school football games was illegal.
16. Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586 (1940).
17. West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943); Watchtower Society v. Village of Stratton, 536 U.S. 150 (2002).
18. Gillette v. United States, 401 U.S. 437 (1971).
19. Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398 (1963); Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972).
20. Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990).
21. Juliet Eilperin, “31 states have heightened religious freedom protections,” Washington Post, 1 March 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...gious-freedom/. Three more states passed state RFRAs in the past year.
22. Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 573 U.S. 682 (2014).
23. Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015).
24. David Masci and Michael Lipka, "Where Christian Churches, Other Religions Stand on Gay Marriage," Pew Research Center, 21 December 2015, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...-gay-marriage/.
25. Jess Bravin, "Supreme Court Sides with California Churches on COVID-19 Restrictions," The Wall Street Journal, 26 February 2021. https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme...ns-11614398483.
26. Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919).
27. Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969).
28. Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989).
29. United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990).
30. Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 (1931).
31. New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971).
32. New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964).
33. See, for example, Virginia v. Black, 538 U.S. 343 (2003).
34. Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973).
35. Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969).
36. Hazelwood School District et al. v. Kuhlmeier et al., 484 U.S. 260 (1988).
37. National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, 432 U.S. 43 (1977); Snyder v. Phelps, 562 U.S. 443 (2011).
38. United States v. Cruickshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1876).
39. United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939).
40. District of Columbia et al. v. Heller, 554 US 570 (2008), p. 3.
41. Richard Gonzales, “Supreme Court Rejects NRA Challenge to San Francisco Gun Rules,” National Public Radio, 8 June 2015. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...-s-f-gun-rules (March 4, 2016).
42. Serge F. Kovaleski and Richard A. Oppel, Jr. 28 September 2018. “A Man Stashed Gus in His Las Vegas Hotel Room. 3 Years Later, a Killer Did the Same.” New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/u...-lawsuits.html. Michelle Cottle. 28 February 2018. “How Parkland Students Changed the Gun Debate.” The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...-power/554399/.
43. See, for example, Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332 (2009).
44. No-Knock Warrant, Legal Information Institute, https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/no-knock_warrant (June 29, 2021).
45. "No-Knock Warrants: How Common They Are and Why Police Are Using Them," NPR, 12 June 2020, https://www.npr.org/2020/06/12/87629...are-using-them.
46. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961); Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383 (1914).
47. Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385 (1920).
48. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).
49. Kelo et al. v. City of New London et al., 545 U.S. 469 (2005).
50. John C. Moritz. 27 November 2018. "Catholic Diocese Fights to Keep Historic Site from Being Used in Trump's Border Wall." Corpus Christi Caller Times. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ht/2132582002/.
51. See, for example, Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514 (1972).
52. See, for example, Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986); J. E. B. v. Alabama ex rel. T. B., 511 U.S. 127 (1994).
53. Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963).
54. Waters-Pierce Oil Co. v. Texas, 212 U.S. 86 (1909); United States v. Bajakajian, 524 U.S. 321 (1998).
55. See, for example, the discussion in Wilkerson v. Utah, 99 U.S. 130 (1879).
56. Perhaps the most notorious example, Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U.S. 957 (1991), upheld a life sentence in a case where the defendant was convicted of possessing just over one pound of cocaine (and no other crime).
57. Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002).
58. Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005).
59. Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 407 (2008).
60. Elizabeth Lopatto, “How Many Innocent People Are Sentenced To Death?,” Forbes, 29 April 2014. http://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabet.../#6e9ae5175cc1 (March 1, 2016).
61. Dave Mann, “DNA Tests Undermine Evidence in Texas Execution: New Results Show Claude Jones was Put to Death on Flawed Evidence,” Texas Observer, 11 November 2010. http://www.texasobserver.org/texas-o...xas-execution/ (March 4, 2016).
62. See, for example, “States With and Without the Death Penalty,” Death Penalty Information Center, http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/stat...-death-penalty (March 4, 2016).
63. United States v. Darby Lumber, 312 U.S. 100 (1941).
64. Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997); National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519 (2012).
65. See Douglas Shinkle, “State Constitutional Right to Hunt and Fish.” National Conference of State Legislatures, November 9, 2015. http://www.ncsl.org/research/environ...-and-fish.aspx (March 4, 2016).
66. Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74 (1980).
67. The Texas Politics Project, “Trying to Rewrite the Texas Constitution,” https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/arc...01/slide1.html (March 1, 2016).
68. See Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965). This discussion parallels the debate among the members of the Supreme Court in the Griswold case.
69. Samuel Warren and Louis D. Brandeis. 1890. “The Right to Privacy,” Harvard Law Review 4, No. 193.
70. Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965)
71. Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972).
72. See Rachel Benson Gold. March 2003. “Lessons from Before Roe: Will Past be Prologue?” The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy 6, No. 1. https://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/.../gr060108.html (March 4, 2016).
73. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).
74. Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992).
75. Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, 579 U.S. ___ (2016).
76. Nina Totenberg, "In Challenge to Roe, Supreme Court to Review Mississippi Abortion Law," NPR, 17 May 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/05/17/99747...i-abortion-ban.
77. Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986).
78. Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003).
79. Carpenter v. United States, No. 16-402, 585 U.S. ____ (2018). https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinion...6-402_h315.pdf. Alfred Ng. 22 June 2018. "Supreme Court Says Warrant Necessary for Phone Location Data in Win for Privacy." cnet.com. https://www.cnet.com/news/supreme-co...location-data/. | textbooks/socialsci/Political_Science_and_Civics/American_Government_3e_(OpenStax)/04%3A_Civil_Liberties/4.11%3A_References.txt |
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