Developmental Psychology Chapter 1

Define: basic developmental science

researchers who use their time to describe and explain learning and development

Define: applied developmental science

using your research and putting it into practice (e.g your research find out reading is essential for development, therefore you implement at home in reading in the school curriculum)

Define: quantitative change

Changes happens in gradual stages (e.g babies, to infants, to children, to teens etc)

Define: qualitative change

changes happens in unique stages (E.g., children going from crawling to walking)

Define: individual changes

a spread or variability of when children develop their skills (e.g some children will develop walking earlier or some later).

Define: developmental onset

The average age where a child should reaches specific skills (e.g walking at 18 months, talking at 24 months etc)

Define: age onset

The actual age a child reaches those skills

Define: rate of change

how skills develop and change over time (e.g some children develop faster, some don’t)

Define: form of skills

What skills look like in children with different experiences (e.g the school system in the west vs east, especially regarding numeric skills)

Define: stability

The behaviour that is high or low at a certain point will remain consistent at another point (e.g if I’m a shy person in childhood, I will be shy in adulthood)

Define: Plasticity

the ability for your brain to adapt to changing environments because of your environment and experiences (e.g going to a new school and learning your environment)

Define: Nature

how your genetics influence who you are, your biological environment (e.g your parents genetics)

Define: Nurture

how your environment influences you (e.g your school, your friends, the internet)

Define: Developmental Cascades

how one change can impact your life either now, or later

Define: Developmental domain

an area of child development (e.g motor skills, sensory skills)

John Locked said that children are…

a) a blank state

b) people who need the freedom to explore

c) both a & b

d) neither

a) a blank state

Rousseau said…

that children need the freedom to explore their environment without restrictions t so they can learn from their mistakes and also develop their skills

Define: theory

statements to explain observable events (e.g the theory of evolution)

Define: Top-Down explanations

biologically driven abilities that are innate (e.g language, facial recognition)

Define: Bottom-Up explanations

focuses on experiences and how children learn through interacting with the environment to develop

Explain: Evolutionary Theory

A theory by Charles Darwin that explains learned behaviours are important, but has a biological purpose so we can survive (e.g learning to run — to escape predators and live)

Explain: Psychodynamic Theory

A theory by Sigmund Freud that explains our personality is shaped by conscious and unconscious forces. There’s different stages we go through and need to solve

Explain: Psychodynamic Theory

A theory by Sigmund Freud that explains that the goal for survival and reproduction has a heavy influence on behaviour and development. Children go through five stages that satisfy reproduction and survival drives that is acceptable socially and psychologically

List the five psychosexual stages

1. Oral Stage (birth- 1 year)

2. A(nal) Stage (1-3 years)

3. Phallic Stage (3-6 years)

4. Latency Stage (6 years-puberty)

5. Gential Stage (Puberty-death)

What’s the Oral Stage?

Infants find pleasure in the mouth from sucking things (e.g binkies, any objects they can put in the mouth)

What’s the A(nal) Stage?

focuses on the bowel and bladder control (e.g potty training)

What’s the Phallic Stage?

Children notice the difference in their private parts, and focus on those differences, and brings up conflicts (Oedipus complex, p%%%s envy)

What’s the Latency Stage?

Children repress these drives as they focus on other things (school, sports, activities)

What’s the Gential Stage?

ur s*xual urgers are awoken again

Define: Psychosocial Theory

A theory by Erik Erikson that explains people struggle to form their identity, and go through multiple stages to figure it out. If they don’t move on to a next stage, their personality is negatively affected

Define: Behaviourism Theory

A theory by John B. Watson that explains our behaviour is learned by interacting with the environment, and conditioning people (e.g learning to raise your hand in class for the teacher to pick you)

Define: Classical Conditioning

A theory by Ivan Pavlov that explains we take an unconditioned stimulus (e.g an alarm) and make it significant with a response (e.g waking up)

Define: Operant Conditioning

A theory by B.F Skinner that explains our behaviour changes based on punishment or reward. (E.g., children learning that if they throw a tantrum, no iPad time, or an employee doing a project for a promotion).

Define: Constructivism

A theory by Jean Piaget that explains we construct our own knowledge and ideas of the world through experiences (what we learned) and social interactions (e.g university students doing a project on litter and its impact on the soil)

Define: Nativist Theories

A theory by Elizabeth Spelke that explains humans are born with the natural capacity to learn to language

Define: Social Learning Theory

A theory by Albert Bandura that explains humans learn how to act by watching others. (E.g learning not to talk while the teacher is talking)

Define: Information Process Theory

A theory by Robert Kail that explains our brain is like a computer (hard-ware, our neural connections and brain structures) that stores your memories (software, how we deal with that information) you’re able to retrieve.

Define: Developmental Systems Theory

A theory by Linda Smith and Esther Thelen that rejects the “nature vs nurture” theory. Instead, it argues that biology, behaviour and the environment works together

Define: Bioecological Theories

A theory by Urie Bronfenbrenner that focuses on the environmental impact, both external and internal around them (e.g family, friends, culture, systems)

Define: Sociocultural Theories

a theory made by Lev Vygotsky, Beatrice (and a whole bunch of others), who emphasis how social and culture plays a part in a child’s development.

Define: Natural Selection

best traits get passed on to future generations

The ID is

a) the moral compass. It develops over time

b) focusing on pleasure, and is instinctive and is present since birth

c) a balance between the two

b) focusing on pleasure, and is instinctive and is present since birth

The EGO is…

a) Your conscience. A moral compass that tells you what’s right or wrong and makes sure you act in a proper social manner. It develops over time

b) an unconscious drive that arises after being suppressed

c) a balance between the two

c) a balance between the two

The Superego is…

Your conscience. A moral compass that tells you what’s right or wrong and makes sure you act in a proper social manner. It develops over time

How many stages are there in Erik Psychosocial stage? List and Explain

There is eight

1. Trust vs Mistrust: infants learn to trust or not trust the caregivers who meet their basic needs.

2. Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt: Children (specifically toddlers) learn of their free will. Or feel heavy shame and doubt in their abilities because they’re heavily restricted

3. Initiative vs Guilt: Children take the time to explore their abilities and do things. They will feel guilt if they are restricted and less likely to be independent.

4. Industry Vs Inferiority: Learned to be involved and useful in their community and valued by those members. If not, they feel useless

5. Identity vs Confusion: teens-adults try to figure out who they are and what they want to do in life.

6. Intimacy vs Isolation: Young adults find intimate and close relationships with others. Otherwise, they’re lonely.

7. Generativity vs Stagnation: Adults contribute to society by working and being productive. If not, they feel stuck

8. Integrity vs Despair: Adults look back at their life and are grateful for how they lived their life. If they made mistakes or have regrets, they’ll feel despair.

True or false: Behaviourism criticizes the psychosocial theory

False, it criticized the psychodynamic theory, and how we have unconscious forces that drive our behaviour

Explain the Little Albert Experiment

John B Watson wanted to see if fears can be created. So he put baby Albert in a room with a white rat. No fear response. Then he would bang a hammer on a steel bar which caused the baby to cry. Soon, Albert would pair the loud noise with the white rat and would cry whenever he saw it (even if there was no noise) He would also cry whenever he saw other white objects

The little Albert experiment is an example of

a) operant conditioning

b) social learning theory

c) classical conditioning

d) behaviourism

c) classical conditioning. Pairing an unconditioned stimulus (the hammer) with an unconditioned response (no fear), to have develop a conditioned response (fear) to the now conditioned stimulus (the rat)

What was the Skinner Box experiment

An example of operant conditioning. He placed animals like rats and birds in a box and would reward them (or not) based on their behaviour

Define: Positive Reinforcement (e.g think of ADDING something)

Rewarding a behaviour (e.g teachers giving you stickers when you do a good job on a test)

Define: Negative Reinforcement (e.g think of REMOVING something)

Removing something unpleasant from the environment once you do a behaviour (e.g that alarm detector stopping once you remove the smoke)

Piaget stages are which of the following: qualitative or quantitative

Qualitative, they go through different stages

How many stages is in Piaget’s theory? List and explain them

1. Sensorimotor period: understand the word by their senses (hearing, taste, smell, touch, seeing), and how that interacts with their physical motor actions (grapsing, sucking)

2. Preoperational period: develop language and symbolic thinking, but can’t think of complex things (e.g thinking a tall, thin glass has more water than a short wide glass). Also can’t think of others peoples feelings

3. Concrete operational period: they can think logically about real world events and objects (e.g, dolls, and cars are in different categories and not just “toys” ), but can’t think of abstract or hypothetical concepts (what would happen if I do xyz)

4. Formal Operational Period: children can think hypothetically and of abstract concepts, and more logically.

Define: Schema

mental framework that allows us to organize and categorize information. (E.g., you believe your a music-lover)

Define: Assimilation

using your new experiences and putting it into your schema (e.g your schema is that only girls like pink, but a boy tells you he likes pink)

Define: Equilibration

trying to put the new information you learned and fitting it into your schema, known as as a ‘cognitive balance’ (E.g., learning that boys can actually like pink too)

Define: Disequilibrium

Struggling to fit these new ideas into your schemas (e.g boys actually can like pink? Okay maybe he’s an outlier but that’s weird)

Disequilibrium leads to

a) assimilation

b) accommodation

c) acquired

d) innate

b) accommodation. You finally fit it into your schema (e.g think of a puzzle piece finally fitting after you turned it and tried it another way)

Define: child’s proximal development

the zone where children can learn information by themselves (not too hard that they can’t do it even wiith other people, not too easy to do alone)

Define: observational learning

literally watching people to do stuff and learning behaviour from them. Think of the Albert Bandura doll experiment

A father points to an animal and says “bear”. The child looks, sees the animal and process it visually, and auditorily to recognize that that animal is a bear. What learning theory is this

Information Process theory

Define: Developmental systems theorists

they study how view human behavior to be a complex and changing system, in which many

factors produce developmental change

Define: bioecological perspective

how the environment affects human development (e.g, family, culture, life changing events affect us)

According to the bioecological perspective, explain biology

Your attributes (physical like your eye color, height, race, ethnicity) and unobservable traits (intelligence, emotional regulation)

Define: Microsystem

your immediate environment that directly interacts with you (family, friends, school)

Define: Mesosystem

two or more microsystems interacting with each other (e.g learning manners from your family, so you know how to behave in school

Define: Exosystem

An environment that the child does not participate in but it still affects them. (E.g your father not receiving benefits for health insurance, so you cannot afford to go to the dentist)

Define: Macrosystem

How culture affects the way a child is raise (e.g some cultures believing that spanking your child is okay)

Define: Chronosystem

How life changing events impact your development across your life, and history (e.g moving, or a parents death

Define: vicarious reinforcement (mix of behaviourism and reinforcement)

children learn how to behave by watching others get rewarded or punished. (e.g being yelled at for not lining up, vs getting a thank you for lining up

Define: cultural learning environment

how a culture shapes how humans learn and develop (e.g a mom from the middle east might be very strict compared to a mom in America)

Define: Developmental Niche

the physical and social settings of childrens, what the parents/caregivers beliefs are, and how they take care of their child.

What components are included in the developmental niche? (P.B.S)

1. Physical

2. Behaviour

3. Symbolic

What’s the physical component?

The materials they use and the place they’re in (e.g for materials, chopsticks or forks, learning materials such as books and toys)

What’s the behavioural component?

Cultural practices/the way they do things, and the way we interact (talking vs not talking). For instance, some cultures have children in school, others they learn on the farm and help out at home.

What’s the Symbolic component?

The culture beliefs and views. For instance some parents are strict, while others are more lenient. Some except to move out of the house when 18, or stay with them forever

What is a cultural universal

Something that all humans do. E.g, speak (though we have different languages), eat (we have different foods)

Define: Hypothesis driven research

you have a question and try to find research to support that claim

Define: Hypothesis

an assumption or explanation will little or no evidence (e.g my hypothesis is that girls sleep longer than men)

Define: discovery-based science

a researcher tries to figure out and understand what children do and development is, without any guesses of what they might find

List the steps in the scientific method

1. Figure out your question (e.g does long social media lower grade scores?)

2. Make your hypothesis that answers the question (Bad grades scores are because of high social media use)

3. Conduct your experiment (use an anonymous survey where people say their grades and screen time)

4. Analyze your results (is it true or false? Which social media platform had the most impact)

5. Draw your conclusion (reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis)

True or false: All developmental science begin with an hypothesis

false, you can make a discovery and then base your research question off of it

Define: sample

number of people who are in the study, that will represent the population of interest.

Define: generalizability

the ability to reference your findings in the sample, back to the population (e.g if my sample had majority of people who liked vanilla ice cream, I can say that the general population like vanilla ice cream)

Does a sample size automatically guarantee generalizability? Explain

No, because there can be groups that are misrepresented (e.g more white people than other races, or majority is this religion)

What type of sampling is it, where you use participants that are the most easiest to find

convenience sampling

Variables are which of the following

a) fixed

b) constant

c) can change

d) all of the above

c) can change

True or false: Research method is how we analyze the data

False, how we obtain the data

Name some research methods

1. Interviews (structured, unstructured, semi-structured)

2. Surveys

3. Observation

4. Physiological Assessments

Define: social desirability

provide “socially acceptable answers” to look good in front of the interviewer

True or false: A structured interview is where the interviews improvises the questions

false, that’s an unstructured interview. A structured interview is where you come prepared with questions

Fill in the blank: “Qualitative research is where researchers explore ____ _____ about a phenomenon without a hypothesis

in depth/deep

Structured observations is which of the following

a) watching participants do multiple tasks

b) watching participants do one task

c) watching a participant do a specific task

c) watching a participant do a specific task

True or false: a direct assessment is when a researcher asks a child to do something

false, you test children doing a specific task or test (e.g solve this puzzle, or do this math test)

True or false: in a naturalistic observation, researchers watch participants in everyday settings (e.g at home, school, playground).

True

Name some examples of a physiological test

1. Heart rate

2. brain activation

3. eye movements

4. hormones released due to stress

A study plan is which of the following

a) outlines to the IRB how they will conduct this research

b) a list of methods they will use to conduct this research

c) their specific plan for conducting a study that allows the researcher to test their hypothesis

d) their specific plan for conducting a study that allows the researcher to test their law

c) their specific plan for conducting a study that allows the researcher to test their hypothesis

Define: Correlational Studies

test associations between two or more variables, BUT you don’t manipulate them.

Define: Longitudinal Studies

study the same group of participants over times, usually months or years

Define: Cross-sectional Studies

a study that follows the different group of people at the same time