CH 1 Developmental Psych; Study of Child & Adolescent Development

How do we study it?

3 key things to remember when studying development

1. nature v. nurture

2. continuous or discontinuos growth

3. pertinence of early or later experiences

Skinner v. Chomsky theories

Skinner: pro nurture/ behaviorist

Chomsky: believed in innate biological influence on development

• specifically language

• children say things that they’ve never heard, and are incorrect that have not been rewarded for (Skinner’s reinforcement theory), therefore, children must have inborn biological program for language!

Is children’s vocabulary an example of continuos or discontinuous development?

Continuous

You gradually learn more vocab

Is walking a continuos or discontinuos development?

Discontinuous

Occurs suddenly right after you learn to stand

Is Piaget’s theory continuos or discontinuous?

Discontinuos

New forms of thinking appear during different periods

What is the importance of early experiences in development?

There are sensitive periods for certain developments that can affect later behavior and cognition.

What are developmental cascades?

Series of event affecting other events, can be positive or negative. Like butterfly effect.

One event/delay can spill over to other areas of development.

What is the basis of Ethology Theory?

• non-human animals

• all have sensitive periods because certain things must happen to survive in nature

What is the basis of Evolutionary Developmental Psychology Theory?

• sensitive periods in humans

• evolutionary adaptations made by our ancestors & various aspects of development

• we evolved to be social

What is the basis of Bolwby’s Theory of Attachment?

• involves both the caregiver and the baby, attachment between caregiver and the baby

• evolved to maximize the survival of babies!

• attachment type with first caregiver influences all future adult relationships!

• 1st year is sensitive period for development of attachment

What is the basis of Freud’s Psychosexual Theory?

• 3 personality structures interact dynamically

• 5 stages that influence future behavior

What is the basis of Erikson’s Psycho-Social Theory?

• 8 stages of social and emotional development

• children learn to reconcile crises along the way

• each one influences later behavior, similar to freud

What is the basis of Learning Theories? 3 famous ones?

• change behavior through learned experiences

Classical

Operant

Social Learning

What is the basis of Piaget’s Theory?

• children actively construct their own knowledge and cognition

• organize knowledge in schemes

• 4 stages

What are the 4 stages of Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory?

1. sensori motor (0-2 years) — explore world and develop object permanence and other perceptions.

2. preoperational (2-6 years) — more abstract thinking including symbolic, language, and pretend play but struggle with egocentrism (one perspective, struggle to see other’s perspectives)

3. concrete operational (6-12 years) — begins to classify things and use logic and flexibility

4. formal operational (12-18+ years) — abstract thinking and ability to hypothesize and solve multi-layered problems

In which theory is the zone of proximal development present?

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

What is the basis of Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory?

• development is hugely influenced by sociocultural factors!

• zone of proximal development—distance between actual developmental level (self problem solving) and potential development (with adult guidance)—is best realized through social help!

What is the basis of Information-processing Theories?

• views child’s mind as kinda like a computer

• sensory, working, long-term memory —> developmental changes in the ability to use them

• age related changes in strategies and executive functioning capabilties

What are experiences that might have a negative impact on children’s later health and development?

Adverse childhood experiences

What are experiences or resources that might prevent, mitigate, or remediate negative health and behavioral outcomes?

Protective and compensatory experiences

What do you need for high resilience?

High protective and compensatory, Low adverse

What do you need for high vulnerability?

High adverse, Low protective and compensatory

What is the basis of Systems Developmental Theories?

• systems within systems nested

• they interact with each other and biological characteristics to influence behavior (Dynamic!)

• micro, meso, exo, macro

• development is constant interplay of multiple fators:

  • genetics

  • brain development

  • physical state

  • mental state

  • environment

Self-organizing principle: changes in the system can lead to reorganization into a more complex system over time!

Task-based studies

Children perform specific tasks, often on the computer

Used commonly in cognitive, social-emotional experimental studies

May or may not include deception

What are quasi-experimental studies? When do we use them?

When random assignment isn’t possible due to ethical or practical reasons, natural groups are used as experimental studies!

ex. smoking’s effect on health, new math program at one school compared to another

Which three research methods are most used in developmental studies?

1. case studies

2. correlational studies

3. experimental studies

what are the two main developmental study designs?

longitudinal and cross-sectional

What is the replicability crisis in developmental psychology? How do we mitigate?

effect size is smaller

• small sample of infants, childrens, adolescents

• changes in small aspects of procedures in new studies can be critical

• “file drawer effect” studies that find no difference or smaller correlations often do not get published and ignored

open science and meta-analysis help!