PSYC112

Development

The sequence of physical and psychological changes that human beings undergo as they grow older

Developmental Psychology

The scientific study of age related changes in behaviour, thinking, emotion and personality

Big questions in developmental psychology

1 - continuity and change

2 - sources of development

3 - individual differences

Quantitative change

Measurable, continuity e.g. amount of animals children can name

Qualitative change

Hard to measure, discontinuity e.g. ability of locomotion in children

Critical periods

A period where something has to happen for development to happen

Types of data collection

Self-report, observation, experimental methods, clinical interview methods

Types of research design

Longitudinal design and cross-sectional design

Longitudinal design

Looking at the same thing over time

Cross-sectional design

Comparing different things at the same time

Cognitive development

Intellectual growth

Cognitive processes

Memory, learning, attention, perception, thought, problem solving

The father of cognitive development

Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget studies

Observed children including his own, proposed a sequence of development that all children follow known as the 4 stages of cognitive development, have to master certain things at each stage to continue to develop

Jean Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development

Sensorimotor stage (0-2)

Preoperational stage (2-7)

Concrete operations stage (7-12)

Formal operations stage (12+)

Contrast

Something babies like because their vision isn’t great

Sensorimotor stage (0-2)

Cognition is closely tied to external stimuli, “thinking is doing”

Object permanence

The idea that objects do not cease to exist when they are out of sight

Example is baby doesn’t search for a dog behind a barrier

Babies ability with stimuli 0-3 months old

Look at visual stimuli, turn head towards noise, orientated to sight and sound

Babies ability with stimuli 3 months old

Follows moving objects with eyes, stares at place where object has disappeared but will not search for the object and not anticipate where it will end up

Babies ability with stimuli 5 months old

Can grasp and manipulate objects, will anticipate future position of object in an understanding of its existence (object permanence)

Babies ability with stimuli 8 months old

Searches for a hidden object, “A not B” effect

“A not B” effect

Babies search in the last place they found the object not in the last place they saw it

Babies ability with stimuli 12 months old

Will search in the last place they saw the object

Schema formation

A schema is a mental representation or set of rules that defines a particular behaviour category, it helps us to understand current and future experiences that guide us through life

‘Twin engines’ by which schemas form

Assimilation and accommodation

Assimilation

The process by which new information is modified to fit in with and existing schema

Example if modifying and thinking a rabbit is a dog

Accommodation

The process by which an existing schema is modified or changed by new experience

Example is modifying our schema to include ‘rabbit’

Representational thought

The ability to form mental representations of others behaviour, occurs towards the end of the sensorimotor period

Things that mental representation is instrumental in

Imitation, symbolic play, deferred imitation, and the use of words to represent objects (language)

Deferred imitation

A child’s ability to imitate the actions he or she has observed others perform in the past

Preoperational stage (2-7)

Ability to think logically as well as symbolically, rapid development of language ability, classification, categorization, counting, object manipulation

Things babies in preoperational stage (2-7) fail at

Conservation and egocentrism

Conservation

The understanding that specific properties of objects (height, weight, volume, number) remain the same despite apparent changes or arrangement of those objects

Example is the playdoh game (volume and size)

Egocentrism

A child’s belief that others see the world in precisely the same way that he or she does

Example is not seeing another persons perspective when toy is on the other side of a barrier

Concrete operations stage (7-12)

Ability to perform logical analysis (even/odd numbers), ability to empathize with the thoughts/feelings of others, understanding of complex cause-effect relations

However can’t think abstractly

Formal operations stage (12+)

Abstract reasoning (imagination of life on moon), metacognition (thinking about own thought process like having to remember something for an exam), dependent on exposure to principles of scientific thinking

Age of sensorimotor stage

Birth to 2 years old

Age of preoperational stage

2 to 7 years old

Age of concrete operations stage

7 to 12 years old

Age of formal operations stage

12 years old and upward

Most criticisms of Piaget’s work

Underestimated children’s abilities at various ages

2 criticisms of Piaget’s work

That babies don’t seem to start with nothing and that cognitive development isn’t an all-or-nothing phenomenon

Ideas in criticism 1 (babies don’t seem to start with nothing)

Space and objects, number and mathematical reasoning, social cognition

Ideas in criticism 2 (cognitive development isn’t an all-or-nothing phonomenon

Numerical skills in preschoolers and social cognition in preschoolers

Space and objects - the visual cliff

Children appear to be able ot perceive depth around the time that they can crawl, even pre-crawling infants may be able to discriminate between 2 sides of the cliff, experiment involves a checkered pattern below and on two sides of a glass table

Space and objects - the effect of occlusion

Experiment done using the habituation procedure looking at what babies find weird and the fact that they pay attention to things that are new, even 4 month olds appear to understand the principle of occlusion and that things still exist when they are blocked by another object

Occlusion

The blocking of a visual or auditory stimulus by another object or event, which can significantly impact perception, attention, and other cognitive processes

The habituation procedure

Infants prefer to pay attention to novel things, over time they become accustomed to stimuli and pay less attention to them, the moment something new happens they pay attention again, we can use this behaviour pattern to find out which of two stimuli infants percieve as more novel

Space and objects - understanding support

Develops gradually by 6 months, an understanding of gravity and depth through experiment with red and black blocks falling

Space and objects - object permanence

Thinking about the “A not B” error where babies earch in the last place they found an object not the last place they saw the object the babies don’t really think the object is where they are searching for it instead the error simply appears to represent difficulty overriding a motor habit

Number and mathematical reasoning

Instead of only conserving number when 6, some 6 months old can show understanding of number, seen in experiment where if a speaker booms twice babies look at a group of 2 and if a speaker booms three times babies look at a group of 3

Social cognition

An understanding about other people, newborn babies would rather look at faces than scrambled faces, at 3 weeks old, infants will attempt to imitate facial expressions, 9 month olds will look in the direction of their mothers gaze, understand intention as in experiment reaching an object the children find the intention changing weird instead of the different kind of reaching weird, infants of 6 months old appear to understand actions in terms of intended goals

Numerical skills in preschoolers

Even when they don’t use the right numbers, toddlers understand what counting is all about, children younger than 6 can generally conserve number if the task is relevant, Piaget’s assertion that children can’t conserve number could be due to repeated questioning and if a question is asked again children will think that there intiial answer is wrong

Social cognition in preschoolers - egocentrism

Piaget thought that children were egocentric and couldn’t understand other peoples perspective until they were around 7 years old, even 3 and 4 year olds can pass a diorama task if its relevant, at 2.5-3.5 children will turn a book around so an adult can see it and bend down when talking to younger children, children under 1 year will turn to see what their mother is looking at

Social cognition in preschoolers - theory of mind

A group of skills relating to the understanding of the existence of other peoples minds (their intentions beliefs, likes and dislikes, perspectives etc), theory of mind allows us to be effective in social situations

Social cognition in preschoolers - others likes and dislikes

Broccoli versus crackers study, 18 months olds gave the experimenter what she liked, 14 months old gave the experiment what they liked

Social cognition in preschoolers

One aspect of theory of mind, false belief task, on average 4 year olds pass and 3 year olds don’t - crackers or wombat in box, new person has false belief about crackers even though we know a wombat is in there

Social development

Forming bonds with people, learning to behave in socially acceptable ways, learning to be good friends and allies, learning to deal with adversaries

Attachment

An emotional and social bond between infant and caregiver that spans both time and space, example is Harry Harlows monkey experiment, another experiment is the strange situation test when a mother and a stranger take turns leaving a child

Social learning theory

The idea that we know what to do by watching others i.e. imitation, experiment is with bobo dolls where kids watch adults fight them and then they fight them too

Cognitive development theory

The idea that cognitive development drives other developments such as socially, example is how the cognitive ability to see other peoples perspective allows us to be empathetic

Parenting style as a two way street

The child infleunces the parent as well as how the 2 dimensions of parenting (responsiveness and demandingness) infleunce childrens development

Trajectory of peer relationships

As we get older they have more of an effect on us than our parents, starts of with parallel playing and progresses to give/take relationships and finally we think about what we can offer our friends in return

Emotional development — expressing emotions

Basic emotions are present from early on others take time to emerge such as embarassment as that requires cognitive devleopment ot be able to see others perspectives

Emotional development - emotional regulation

Infants are reliant on adults to soothe them, self-soothing ability develops over time (sucking thumb, covering eyes, language helps to learn adaptive ways), display rules

Display rules

Govern the degree to which emotions need to be regulated in a given situation, e.g. cultural regulations such as men aren’t allowed to cry

Moral behaviour

Behaviour that conforms to a generally accepted set of rules

Moral development of not doing wrong

Initially entirely guided by consequences and kids don’t do wrong things because they get in trouble, then we start to internalize rules that are socially acceptable, parents teach children the Principle of Minimal Sufficiency

Principle of Minimal Sufficiency

Suggests that the consequence should be enough to change the behaviour but not enough that the child is forced

Moral development of doing right

Prosocial behaviour, empathetic distress where children cry when their parents cry, offers of help are initially egocentric where they start to help by offering things they want instead of offering parents what they would want, learn that prosocial behaviour might leave you worse off

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

Studied only boys aged between 10-17 years, presented subjects with scenarios such as Heinz wife dying of cancer and asking whether he should steal a drug that he can’t afford to save her

Levels of Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

Preconventional level, conventional level, post-conventional level

Preconventional level

Behaviour based on external sanctions, such as authority and punishment, guided by consequences, egocentric

Stage 1 (preconventional level)

Obeying authority and avoiding punishment

Stage 2 (preconventional level)

Instrumental hedonism and feeling good, behaviour guided egocentrically by the pleasantness of its consequences to them/fufillment of needs

Conventional level

Includes an understanding that the social system has an interest in peoples behaviour, how you are seen and how society runs

Stage 3 (conventional level)

Maintaining good relations, wanting to be regarded as good, well-behaved people

Stage 4 (conventional level)

Maintaining social order, laws and moral rules maintain social order and must be obeyed like wedding vows and the law

Post-conventional level

Moral rules have some underlying principles that apply to all situations and societies, participants had to say they stole the drug

Stage 5 (post conventional level)

Rules are social contracts, not all authority figures are infallible, individual rights can sometimes take precedence over laws

Stage 6 (post-conventional level)

Rules and laws are justified by abstract ethical values, such as the value of human life and the value of dignity

Evaluations of Kohlberg’s Theory

Effect of wording changes the response as if jail is emphasized, more say no and if if death is emphasized more say yes, stages may be coherent entities but do reflect a progression, potential culture and gender biases like good neighbors and females being more empathetic, there is no investigation to whether there is a correlation between moral reasoning and moral conduct where people actually do the right thing

Genetic sex

What you are chromosomally, XX or XY

Morphological sex

The shape you are, what you look like, your organs

Genetic and morphological sex

Usually the same

Gender identity

One’s private sense of male of female-ness, used to pathologize gender dysphoria when it is distressing

Gender roles

Cultural expectations about ways in which men and women should think and behave e.g. women in the kitchen

Gender stereotypes

Beliefs about differences in the behaviors, abilities and personality traits of males and females e.g. women like shoes

The overall ideas relating to the development of gender

Nature vs nurture, whether gender is determined by society or if it is biological

Gender development - age 18 months

Beginnings of gender-typed preferences e.g. girls usually play with girls

Gender development - age 3

Knowledge of own gender, preference for different toys and friends of own sex, ability to assign gender to pictures is limited

Gender development - age 5

Major flaw in understanding of gender constancy until 5, think that cutting a girls hair makes her into a girl, think that gender changes with clothes and hair, appearance is important in gender

The main biological explanation for gender differences

Exposure of the developing brain to male sex hormones has behavioral effects, studies done with rates and mice (Gandelman, Vom Saal, and Reinisch (1977), Ward (1972))

Gandelman, Vom Saal, and Reinisch (1977)

Done with rats, prenatal exposure to testosterone results in more ‘male-like’ behaviour in females, male like behaviors such as aggressiveness and mating

Ward (1972)

Done with rats, males deprived of prenatal testosterone behave more like females, mating behaviour where female backs up into male

Rats gender when in the womb

Rats are lined up and if a female rat is next to a boy, some of the testosterone from the male can wash into the girl in the womb

Testosterone may also play a role in spatial ability

Males with low testosterone levels do worse on spatial tasks, females with high testosterone levels do better on spatial tasks, testosterone fluctuations during the menstrual cycle affect spatial abilities, experiment is squares and triangles folding into a cube

Physical aggression in males appears to be biologically predisposed

Kicking rates are higher when there is a male baby, females have more relational aggression

The anatomy of the human brain shows some gender differences

Thought to be due to different hormone exposure during development, males brain is bigger on average, Brocas/Wernicke’s areas bigger in females, gender differences in cognitive ability (e.g. verbal and spatial) are at least partially due to differences in the brain