Title: What is Disengagement Theory? Author: Cristen Conger Date Published: April 7th, 2009 Why Relevant and Summary: It details the disengagement theory and discusses how the study that produced this theory began and how the scholarly community regarded this theory. It also briefly compares it to other theories of aging that eventually developed. How This Influenced My Thinking: It gave a nice background to how the Disengagement Theory came about. It also is a good reminder that theories can become outdated. Just because a popular opinion is also a theory, it does not necessarily make it factual or "right." Credibility of Source: OK. From Discovery Health website.

Title: The Durable Power of Attorney: Health Care and Finances Author: Shae Irving, J.D. Date Published: n.d. Why Relevant and Summary: Defines durable power of attorney, difference between medical and financial, and says why it is important. How This Influenced My Thinking: Gave me more knowledge. Credibility of Source: ok

Title: How to Get a Great Body as a 50-Year-Old Female Author: Leslie Treux Date Published: August 25th, 2011 Why Relevant and Summary: Pertinent to middle-aged adults and the changes of the body. This article briefly advises women on how to minimize negative affects of aging. Nothing particularly fascinating. How This Influenced My Thinking: No change. Pretty common sense. Credibility of Source: Good.

Title: Who am I? Exploring Your Identity Author: Kristine Anthis, PhD Date Published: May 31st, 2011 Why Relevant and Summary: Discusses the challenge of identity achievement and why it's so hard. Includes Marcia's Identity Status Model. How This Influenced My Thinking: We all know it's hard to be in identity achievement, but this article explains why. Credibility of Source: Good.

Title : Struggle for Smarts? How Eastern and Western Cultures Tackle Learning Author : Ali Spiegel Date : 11/12/2012 Link : http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/11/12/164793058/struggle-for-smarts-how-eastern-and-western-cultures-tackle-learning Why Relevant and Summary: Points out a big difference between Eastern and Western cultures regarding intelligence and learning. Eastern cultures believe that struggling through a problem is "good" and shows emotional strength. They believe intelligence is something that anyone can obtain through hard work and persistence. Western culture tends to view intelligence as innate. And if you have to struggle at something, then you're simply not good at it, and that's that. How This Influenced My Thinking: Once this was pointed out to me, it seemed very apparent to me. Considering I grew up with an Asian mom and many Asian friends, I felt that this generalization held some truth to it.

Title: Moral Emotions and Moral Behavior Author: J.P. Tangney, J. Stuewig, & J.D. Mashek Date Published: 2007 Why Relevant and Summary: Discusses a study on moral emotions and behavior. According to the study done, "… actual behavior is not necessary for the press of moral emotions to have effect." How This Influenced My Thinking: Shows the power of guilt and shame. Just feeling those feelings is enough to stop us from doing something that would benefit us. Credibility of Source: High

Title: Puberty Before Age 10: A New 'Normal'? Author: Elizabeth Weil Date Published: March 30th, 2012 Why Relevant and Summary: It goes through the very basic changes that are seen in puberty, but it's discussing these changes happening in very young girls. In this article, they describe the situation of a little girl in the first grade! How This Influenced My Thinking: Made me aware of what I was consuming and how I may decide to raise my children. It is concerning that there's a possibility of "outside" estrogen causing this early onset of puberty. It's also interesting that we do not note this trend in boys. Credibility of Source: Good - NY Times is very popular. The article contains advice from a variety of doctors and professionals.

Title: Promoting Resilience in Children: What Parents Can Do Authors: Christine A. Christle, M.Ed., Debra A. Harley, Ph.D., C. Michael, Nelson, Ed.D., Karen Jones Date Published: n.d. Why Relevant and Summary: I thought this article was pertinent to friendships in middle childhood, and in particular, it seemed useful in terms of dealing with negative social interactions. How This Influenced My Thinking: It identified a significant factor that explains why some kids succeed. That factor is resilience. Credibility of Source: High

Title: Childhood Obesity Facts Author: None Date Published: Feb. 19, 2013 Why Relevant and Summary: Includes facts on childhood and adolescent obesity. Also includes health effects and prevention. How This Influenced My Thinking: After our class discussion on BMI, it made me wonder if perhaps the statistics listed regarding overweight children are based off of BMI. Even though BMI is a good place to start, it is certainly not an accurate indicator of our children's body composition. Credibility of Source: High.

Title: High functioning autism in adults, a personal perspective Author: Steve Date Published: 2011 Why Relevant and Summary: A high-functioning autistic man gives his perspective on living with autism. This is relevant because it touches upon theory of mind (subtly) and connects it with autism. How This Influenced My Thinking: This video was powerful to me because Steve was able to express his perspective on the world even though he says he does not understand other people's perspectives… I really liked the way he described it. Credibility of Source: High (personal account)

Title: Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development Author: Kay C. Wood, Harlan Smith, Daurice Grossniklaus Date Published: 2001 Why Relevant and Summary: Explains Piaget's stages of cognitive development and describes educational implications. It also details what opponents of Piaget's theory have to say. How This Influenced My Thinking: Helps me understand how to communicate and teach preoperational children. Credibility of Source: High (Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology, University of Georgia)

Title: Attachment Theory Author: Saul McLeod Date Published: 2009 Why Relevant and Summary: Discusses John Bowlby's attachment theory. It goes through stages of attachment and breaks it down by age. It also refers to the two main theories of attachment (not just Bowlby's) and discusses a older study done on monkeys regarding attachment. How This Influenced My Thinking: It emphasized an important point for me, which was "attachments were most likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby's signals, not the person they spent most time with." Credibility of Source: High

Title: Zone of Proximal Development Author: Saul McLeod Date Published: 2010 Why Relevant and Summary: Provides clear explanation of ZPD - made it much more clear to me compared to the book. How This Influenced My Thinking: made it clear to me what ZPD is. Credibility of Source: good - from a psychology organization.

Title: Understanding Temperament in Infants and Toddlers Author: Lindsey T. Allard and Amy Hunter Date Published: Oct. 2010 Why Relevant and Summary: Discusses temperament in infants and children and the importance of considering temperament in a child. How This Influenced My Thinking: This article made me aware of my own temperament and personality style. Credibility of Source: High.

Title: Baby Brain Food Author: None Date Published: 2011 Why Relevant and Summary: Provides information on optimal nutrition for healthy brain development in infants. Though this particular article focuses on nutrition that is beneficial for the brain, the website as a whole places an emphasis on helping parents to raise bright, intelligent kids from a very early age. How This Influenced My Thinking: It emphasized how even the simplest of activities makes an imprint on a baby's mind. Credibility of Source: good. Has world-wide influence.

Title: Delivery mode shapes the acquisition and structure of the initial microbiota across multiple body habitats in newborns Author: Maria G. Dominguez-Bello, Elizabeth K. Costello, Monica Contreras c , Magda Magris, Glida Hidalgo, Noah Fierer, and Rob Knight Date Published: May 24, 2010 Why Relevant and Summary: This is relevant because it compares to modes of birth delivery: cesarean section and vaginal delivery. This article compares the types of microbes that inhabit a newborn's skin after birth. It looks at newborns born via cesarean section and vaginal. How This Influenced My Thinking: It provided a more quantifiable way to measure and compare cesarean section and vaginal birth because I still do not have a strong opinion as to how I would personally choose to have my children. Credibility of Source: High. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)

Title: Prenatal Development Author: Richard Parncutt Date Published: 2006 Why Relevant and Summary: This resource discusses prenatal development with a focus on the fetal sound environment. This is relevant because it directly discusses prenatal development and care. It also touches upon the emotional and physiological aspects of communication with a developing baby by using sound. How This Influenced My Thinking: I had no idea how much of an influence sounds had on a developing baby, and how early the influence begins. Credibility of Source: Excellent. Author is a professor who specializes in psychology of music.

Title: How people make their own environments: a theory of genotype → environment effects Author: Sandra Scarr and Kathleen McCartney Date Published: April 1983 Why Relevant and Summary: This is relevant because it goes into much further detail about the genotype → environment effects theory compared to the book. This article proposes that a child's genotype can "directly affect its rearing environment," which is a point that was not as explicit in the textbook. Overall, this article emphasizes a greater role of genotype influence in the process of human development. How This Influenced My Thinking: This influenced my thinking by taking on a more opinionated perspective on the genotype → environment effects theory. The class textbook takes on a very objective approach to explaining, and this article takes it a step further by adding onto it. Although this article is outdated, it still provided me with a new train of thought. I found this to be an interesting article, but at times, hard to read. Credibility of Source: Very good (though outdated).

Title: Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory Author: Dede Paquette and John Ryan Date Published: 2001 Why Relevant and Summary: Explains Bronfenbrenner's theory and connects it to modern child development and compares this to child development when the economy was more industrial, less technological. It also explains Bronfenbrenner's concerns with our technological world. The 5th page looks at the human body as a part of a person's microsystem, which was fascinating, especially since the textbook doesn't seem to consider this. How This Influenced My Thinking: Introduced the idea of the human body as being part of the microsystem - new to me! Also, I learned that this model can play a big role in influencing public policies, which is refreshing because as a student, it's easy to get caught up in this thinking that the classroom stuff isn't relevant or doesn't easily apply to the real world… but it can! Credibility of Source: Pretty good - the work cites a lot of educational resources, and I read the company profile, which seems to be run by qualified people.

Title: Handbook of Adolescent Psychology (4th ed.) Author: Laurence Steinberg, PhD Date Published: Copyright 1999-2012 Why Relevant and Summary: Discusses theory of identity formation. This is a photocopy from a book that someone put on the web. The url provides 29 pages. I found page 3-4 to be the most relevant for the assignment because those pages compare Erikson's and Marcia's theories in a way that was new to me. The other pages were interesting and went into depth, but pages 3-4 were most helpful and straight to the point after having already read about identity formation in our class textbook. How This Influenced My Thinking: It compares the differences between Erikson's and Marcia's theories on identity formation (starting on the 3rd page). Credibility of Source: High.