Human Development Exam 1

Developmental Theories

Periods of the Lifespan (8)

Prenatal, Infancy and toddlerhood, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, emerging and young adulthood, middle adulthood, late adulthood

Prenatal Period Ages

Conception to Birth

Infancy and Toddlerhood ages

Birth to age 3

Early Childhood ages

3-6 years

Middle Childhood ages

6-11 years

Adolescence

11-20 years

Emerging and Young Adulthood

Ages 20-40 years

Middle adulthood

ages 40-65 years

Late adulthood

65 years +

Heredity

traits inherited from the biological parents

Environment

the world around us

Maturation

unfolding of a natural sequence of physical and behavioral changes

Maturation natural sequence

learning to move around —> rolling over —> crawling —> pulling up —> taking first steps

Family

can be nuclear or extended

SES

family income or education level

Culture

customs, traditions, beliefs

Race and/or Ethnicity

social status or immigrant status

Normative influences

biological or environmental events

Age-graded influences

highly similar for people in a particular age group

History-graded Influences

significant events that shape behavior and attitudes (COVID 19, rise of digital age, WW2)

Nonnormative events

Atypical events; disturb the typical sequence of the life cycle (death of a parent, late in life pregnancy)

Original Scientific Question for Nature vs. Nurture

Which one?

Current question for Nature vs. Nurture

How do they interact?

Examples of nature vs. nurture interacting

How does genetic predisposition for aggression manifest or not manifest based on adults’ exposure to violence?

Continuous Development

Quantitative changes in how much or how many of something exists

Discontinuous Development

Qualitative changes in what exists; a discrete change occurs (learning how to walk)

Critical Period

Development cannot proceed normally with/without that stimuli

Sensitive Period

Stimuli is harmful or helpful but consequences are not irreversible (Develop secure attachments)

Current view of sensitive and critical periods

Development is often malleable; especially social development. Humans have a large capacity for resilience

Psychoanalytic Perspective

Behavior is motivated by inner forces, memories, or conflicts that stem from childhood

Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

Lifespan approach to development; nurture oriented— development is shaped by environmental influences; stage theory — dependent on accomplishing “tasks” across 8 developmental stages

Stages of Psychosocial Development

Trust vs. Mistrust, Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt, Initiative vs. Guilt, Industry vs. Inferiority, Identity vs. Role Connection, Intimacy vs. Isolation, Generativity vs. Stagnation, Integrity vs. Despair

Infant

Trust vs. Mistrust

Toddler

Autonomy vs Shame/doubt

Pre-schooler

Initiative vs. Guilt

Grade-schooler

Industry vs. Inferiority

Teenager

Identity vs Role connection

Young adult

Intimacy vs. Isolation

Middle-Age adult

Generativity vs. Stagnation

Older Adult

Integrity vs. Despair

Behaviorism

Watson and Skinner; does not explain individual differences and is no longer used to examine mental processes because we now have indirect measures

Social Learning Theory

Bandura; People learn social behaviors from observing and imitating other people- modeling

Bidirectional Influence

People influence others as others influence them

Classical conditioning

Watson; Little Albert. Stimulous-response theories; said he “could mold any infant in any way he chose”

Operant conditioning

Skinner; reinforcement and punishment. Widely used as a therapeutic approach for children with disabilities

Sociocultural theory

like Piaget, Vygotsky stressed active engagement with the environment but also stressed social factors. People learn through social interactions

Cognitive Stage Theory

Piaget; children learn by exploring their environment. Thinks of development as discontinuous.

Information processing theory

Framework that supports a wide-range of theories. The brain is like a computer- sensory inputs —> behavioral outputs

4 Stages of Cognitive Stage Theory

Sensorimotor Period

Preoperational Period

Concrete operational period

Formal operational period

Sensorimotor Period

Coordination of sensory input and motor responses; development of object permanence (birth-2 years)

Preoperational Period

development of symbolic thought marked by irreversibility, centration, and egocentrism (2-7 years)

Concrete Operational Period

Mental operations applied to concrete events; mastery of conservation, hierarchical classification (7-11 years)

Formal Operational Period

mental operations applied to abstract ideas; logical, systematic thinking (11-adulthood)

Contextual Perspective

someone’s development can only be understood in light of their social and cultural contexts

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory

A child’s world is an organized set of nested systems

Development is affected by interactions between the child and these systems, and between the systems themselves

Evolutionary/Sociobiological Perspective

Influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution

Draws on anthropology, ecology, genetics, and ethology (adaptive behaviors of animal species in nature)

Innate adaptive behaviors

Evolutionary psychology

Cross-species comparisons

John Bowlby

Proximity seeking behaviors in animals —> ideas of attachment in humans

Correlational Methods

Seek to identify whether an association between 2 factors exists

Interested in the direction and magnitude of systematic relations between variables

Correlation does not equal causation

Direction: positive or negative

Positive: as one increases the other increases

Negative: as one increases the other decreases

Magnitude: small to large

Small: r = ± .2

Moderate: r = ± .5

Large: r = ± .7

Experimental Methods

designed to discover causal relationships between factors

Independent variable

variable manipulated by researchers

Dependent variable

Variable measured by researchers to see if it changes as a result of experimental manipulation

Relies on random assignment to experimental and control groups

Intervention Methods

Randomize participants to intervention or control group

Implement intervention (often ongoing) for popular change (usually over time)

Report Measures

Self reports; information provided by people directly

Verbal interview format

Written survey format

Naturalistic Observation

Naturally occurring behavior in people’s usual settings

Structured Observation

Create a situation in which the behavior of interest is likely to occur

Cross sectional designs

Compare people of different ages on the same measures in order to infer how changes occur over the course of development

Longitudinal designs

Follow a single group of people as they grow to determine how changes occur over the course of development

Sequential designs

Compare people of different ages on the same measures and follow them as they grow

Research ethics

Key rights of people as participants in research:

• Protection from physical or psychological harm

• Up-front info about procedures (consent)

• Privacy of data and involvement