This chapter begins with an overview of the major changes in physical size and proportions and the nature of developmental changes in physical growth. We also examine factors that influence growth and discuss the problem of childhood obesity. We then shift our focus to one of the most important and drastic periods of change in the life span—adolescence and the onset of sexual maturity. We next look at aspects of children’s motor development, examining both gross and fine motor changes in children’s abilities to control their bodies. We then devote a relatively large section to the development of perhaps the body’s most important organ—at least from a psychological perspective—the brain, which is expanded in later chapters.

This introductory chapter is intended to “set the table” so to speak for the rest of the textbook. Marketing is defined as an academic discipline. The critical importance is emphasized of market segmentation and target market selection to the firm. Importantly, a new model of marketing strategy is proposed that attempts to tie everything together. As defined, marketing is critical for every firm, including distributors and retailers. Channels of distribution are described. A discussion is given on how channels help connect the firm to targeted end-customers. In addition, how channels of distribution relate to brand equity and the pricing of goods is stressed. Finally, the critical importance of the pull and push strategy is highlighted, pertaining to how this plan improves the functioning of every marketing channel of the firm.

The importance is stressed of understanding the definition of channel contracts and associated common terms. An argument is made that channel contracts are necessary in every inter-firm channel relationship. The steps taken to formulate channel contracts are presented, followed by a discussion of why alteration of contracts is often required. It is acknowledged why serious contract violations must be dealt with swiftly and effectively. The implications of major laws that apply to channel conduct are evaluated.

What conflict means as a construct is discussed. Acknowledgment is made of the main stages in the conflict process, within and between channel organizations. An analysis is undertaken of the major causes of conflict, within both direct channels and indirect channels, and how they can be reduced in magnitude. Consideration is given to how contract enforcement efforts and conflict are interconnected. It is emphasized that conflict can have both functional and dysfunctional effects, within and between organizations. An evaluation is made of how conflicts can be effectively resolved.

This chapter is mostly devoted to the development of emotion in infancy, childhood, and adolescence. We follow this with a look at the closely related topics of temperament and personality and their development. We also examine when emotions sometimes get the better of children, causing excessive stress, anxiety, and depression.

In this chapter we investigate intelligence and academic achievement. In the first major section of this chapter, we focus on the concept of IQ, the so-called psychometric approach to intelligence, and some alternatives to this approach, including Robert Sternberg’s theory of adaptive intelligence and Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. The origins and consequences of individual differences in intelligence are also examined. In the second major section of this chapter, we pay attention to the developmental, cultural, and evolutionary basis of schooling, with a particular emphasis on literacy, and numeracy, likely two of society’s most significant core academic skills.

This chapter begins by reviewing Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget’s theory. Piaget believed that the way children represent the world changes systematically between infancy and adolescence, and we describe here the main concepts and stages of his theory. We next look at theory theories of cognitive development, focusing on children’s understanding of the biological world. We conclude by looking at several expressions of symbolic functioning in children and how they change with age: symbolic play, drawing, and distinguishing between fantasy and reality.

This chapter is about the development of human language, one of the more distinctive traits of the human species. In the first two sections, we present some reflections about the nature of human language and the theories that have aimed to explain their acquisition in children to date. The core of the chapter focuses on a thorough description of the course of language development in children and adolescents according to their four most prominent aspects: phonology, semantics, grammar, and pragmatics. Finally, we present a section on atypical language development (in children with hearing, visual or intellectual impairment, and children with specific language impairment), and another section devoted to bilingualism and second-language learning.

This chapter first focuses on infants’ perception, the process of becoming aware of objects, relations, and events by way of the senses, and then on infant cognition, the processes or faculties by which knowledge is acquired and manipulated. We start with a look at methods that have provided psychologists with insights into what babies perceive and think, mainly what they see and hear. We then examine several aspects of infant visual perception, including visual preferences, depth perception, and face perception. We follow this with a brief look at infant auditory perception and then intermodal (between senses) perception, focusing mainly on the integration of vision and hearing. Our discussion then turns to topics of infant cognition. We look at the concept of core knowledge, followed by reviews of research on object representation and infants’ abilities to make sense of quantitative information. We then examine infants’ memory skills. The chapter concludes with a short discussion about the role of experience in infant perceptual and cognitive development and the relation between infant brain and cognitive development.

In this chapter we look at the earliest stages of life, starting with prenatal development, followed by the birth process, and ending with a description of the physical and behavioral features of the newborn. Although most of this chapter is descriptive – that is, the stages of prenatal development and birth and the behavioral abilities of neonates – we also emphasize how what happens during these earliest times of development sets the stage for what will come later in life.