Child development terms

Development

the Sequence of physical and physiological changes that human beings undergo as they grow older (relevant over lifespan)

Developmental psychology

the scientific study of age-related changes in behaviour, thinking, emotion, and personality (less physical changes, more physiological changes)

Quantitative change (continuity)

e.g sea sponge getting bigger, vocab (grows as you learn more and skills develop with age)

Quantitative change (discontinuity)

tadpole —> frog, different change over time, not just size. Lifecycle of a plant, changes that are hard to measure, locomotion in children, develop with age (crawling, standing, walking, running, not just crawling faster

Types of data collection

Self report, observation, experimental methods, clinical interview methods

Self-report

asking, e.g using questionnaires (often not honest)

Observation

watching in natural habitat

experimental methods

placebo pills, small environmental change (rouge experiment - mirror)

clinical interview methods

using a question to broaden the questions - therapy, expanding as you learn more

Longitudinal design

children consistently monitored over long period of time.

cross-sectional design

use different people from different age groups

Nature vs Nurture

the pendulum changes over time, use of identical twin studies - share 100% DNA, separating twins to see environmental effect.

Religion - biologically inherited, gravitate people towards religion.

Nothing is purely environmental or genetic - interwoven (epigenetic)

Sensitive period

a time for development where its good for something to occur, but isn’t required for development

Critical period

period where something must happen for natural development.

Imprinting

lorenz’s geese, the period of attachment after birth - geese following mother after first sight of her.

Genie - critical period

feral child, skills never completely developed (missed the critical period)

Are we as humans distinct from other species?

many similarities and differences, e.g should a parrot be a witness in court, or a chimp guilty of murder, elephant denied “personhood” despite shared DNA with humans..

Is individual development continuous?

Discontinuity, Continuity

What makes individuals different from each other?

genetics, culture, parenting, education (10 fingers for counting vs 27 counting technique)

To what extent are individual characteristics stable over time?

certain things are stable over time e.g shy (child—>adult)

criminal behaviour —> is there behavioural evidence in babies?