Lecture 1 - Fundamental Concepts

domains of development

physical, cognitive, psychosocial

periods of development

groups are socially defined and differ across cultures

developmental psychology

studies the physical, mental, and behavioral changes that occur from conception to old age and the factors that affect it

nature and nurture

how biological and environmental forces act and interact to make us who we are

scientific method

generating ideas and testing them … beliefs that investigators should allow their systematic observations to determine the merits of their thinking

theory

concepts and propositions intended to describe and explain phenomena

good ones are internally consistent, falsifiable, and supported by data

hypotheses

specific predictions generated from theories

cross-sectional design

compares groups of different ages at the same time

longitudinal designs

compares the same group across a time period

sequential design

a combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal designs .. mini longitudinal studies with overlapping age groups

issues in developmental psychology

nature vs nurture, active vs passive, continuous vs discontinuous (whether the changes over life span are gradual or abrupt), and universal vs context-specific (are there developmental progressions that are universal across ethnic, racial, socioeconomic status groups, etc.)

psychoanalytic theory (freud)

emphasized biological instincts and unconscious motivation

id, ego, and superego as the three components of the personality

five stages of psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latent, genital

defense mechanisms

unconscious coping devices the ego adopts to defend itself against anxiety that can occur as conflicts arise

repression

removing from consciousness

regression

retreating to an earlier stage of development

erik erikson’s psychosocial theory

emphasis on social influences, rational ego, and development after adolescence rather than on sexual urges, the unconscious, irrational, selfish id

watson’s classical conditioning

conclusions about human development and functioning should be based on observations of overt behavior (Little Albert, Pavlov)

skinner’s operant conditioning

concept of reinforcement and punishment … children learn from desirable/undesirable outcomes

bandura’s social cognitive theory

based on observational learning (ex. bobo doll), where humans are active agents of development (concepts of self-efficacy and reciprocal determinism)

piaget’s constructivism

children construct their own understandings of the world based on experiences: Assimilation (Adding new information) + Accommodation (Modifying existing concepts to fit new)

piaget’s stages of cognitive development

sensorimotor stage: exploring world through senses/motor skills, unable to use symbols to solve problems mentally

preoperational: developed capacity for symbolic thought (words), egocentric thinking, easily fooled by appearances, failure to demonstrate conservation

concrete operational: trial-and-error approaches to problem-solving, difficulties with abstract/hypothetical problems

formal operational: ability to think abstractly/hypothetically, can define justice abstractly, can formulate own hypotheses

vygotsky’s sociocultural theory

Children learn through social interactions with more knowledgeable members ● Scaffolding ● Zone of proximal development

information processing theory

attention, memory, and decision making are all developed as the brain changes in capacity and speed

the human mind is like a computer

bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model

refers to children’s development as a result of their organized environments

the developing person is embedded in a series of four environmental systems: micro-, meso-, exo-, macro-, and (+ a factor of time) chronosystem