psych 200 - foundations of developmental psychology

define development

systematic changes and continuities in an individual that occur between conception and death

define systematic

orderly and patterned (not fleeting)

define continuities

remain the same or reflect the past

what are the three broad domains of development?

physical, cognitive and psychosocial

expand and give example of physical domain of development:

bioloigcal proccess

eg: puberty

expand and give example of cognitive domain of development:

thought and other mental proccesses

eg: attention

expand and give example of psychosical domain of development:

the self, social and interpersonal interactions

eg: language, cooperation with others

comment about the process of development:

it is a complex and varied process. different ages have different peak levels of skills, therefore development is not just about getting better and better

name the first period of life and age range associated with it:

prenatal period

conception to birth

name the second period of life and age range associated with it:

infancy

first 2 years (newborn period)

name the third period of life and age range associated with it:

early childhood

2-5/6 years (toddlers = 1-3 years/walking)

name the fourth period of life and age range associated with it:

middle childhood

6-12 years (dependent on puberty)

name the 5th period of life and age range associated with it:

adolescence

12-18/20 years (when becomes relatively independent from parents)

name the 6th period of life and age range associated with it:

emerging adulthood

18-25/29 (between adolescence and adulthood)

name the 7th period of life and age range associated with it:

early adulthood

20-40 years

name the 8th period of life and age range associated with it:

middle adulthood

40-65 years

name the 9th period of life and age range associated with it:

late adulthood

65+

give example of cultural difference of muturity/old ages

botswana have functional definitions - honourary usage, “old but still able to function,” and “old to point of uselessness”

name four measures of biological age:

maturation, responsibility, experience and independence

name and provide examples of the first area of development:

perception

face and sound perception, integrating info from multiple areas, use and select info

name and provide examples of the second area of development:

cognitive

thoughts & beliefs, knowledge & abilities

name and provide examples of the third area of development:

moral

beliefs about good/bad, development of ethics

name and provide examples of the fourth area of development:

social

interpersonal relationships

name and provide examples of the 5th area of development:

action

movement, reflexes, walking

name and provide examples of the 6th area of development:

emotional

emotions (babies vs adults) motivational emotions

name the 7th and 8th areas of development:

brain and physical

name two challenges of studying development

1. thinking across time and space

2. complex interactions

what are the 6 levels that development occurs in? (challenge of studying development)

cultural, social, behaivoural, neural, physiological and genetic

what are the complex interactions between? (challenges of studying development)

nature, nature and developmental change

what is nature?

the influences of heredity, maturation and biological development

what is nurutre?

influences of the environment, emphasis on learning and experiences cause changes

what is epigenetics?

when gene expression can be modulated by experience

what model is used to display interactions between nature and nurture and conceptualise factors influencing development?

bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model

what are the 5 layers of bronfenbrenners bioecological model in order?

microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystems and chronosystem

what is the microsystem? and example:

immediate physical and social environment

eg: immediate family in the home, school

what is the mesosystem? and example:

linkages between microsystems

eg: issues at home influencing performance at school

what is the exosystem? and example:

linkages between social system

eg: government changes influencing school curriculum

what is the macrosystem? and example:

larger cultural context

eg: western, tech culture

what is the chronosystem?

changes occur in a timeframe

what is at the centre of the bronfenbrenner bioecological model?

a child

all these layers contribute to how a child develops

what are the 4 goals of studying development?

describing, explaining, predicting and optimising

why do we study development?

to understand what is changing and what is staying the same and why

describe rene spitz’s investigation:

orphanage nursery: 1:8 nurses/infants, frequently rotated groups, bed sheets hung around cribs, solitary confiement

prison nusery: infants could see eachother, better caregiver/infant ration, mothers 20hrs per week, not very clean

what are the findings from spitz’s social deprivation study?

orphanage: reduced exploration, locomotion/action, extreme fear of strangers, repetitieve and self-injurious behaivours, lack of interest/awareness

37% of infants died by 2 years compared to 0 infants from prison

describe an example of machine learning in development:

tablet recorded childrens actions to diagnose autism, identified 93% with autism

example of a cross-cultural perspective

chinese described as collectivist - rice farming group activity

western cultures described as individualist - wheat farming indivudal/small group activity

what are 3 metaphors for pyshcology?

artist, journalist and lawyer

what are 3 factors a good theory should include?

interally consistent, falsifiable (able to proven wrong) and supported by data

who created the term ‘falsifiable’? and what is the key idea?

popper

if a theory cannot be tested in a way that could show the theory to be wrong, it is not useful for science

what are 3 types of data collection techniques?

reporting, behavioural observing and neural/physiological measures

what are 4 types of reporting (data collection technique)

questionnaires, interviews, achievement tests and personality assessments

2 strengths of reporting (data collection technique)

data collection with large groups

ability to collect many measures

3 limitations with reporting (data collection technique)

cannot be used on infants/children or those with language difficulties

difficult to create equal questions among ages

self-presentation concerns

2 types of behavioural observations (data collection technique)

naturalistic and structured observation

what is naturalistic observation? provide example:

observing behaviour in natural settings

eg: at home, school

2 strengths of naturalistic observation (behaivoural observation - data collection technique)

reflects behaivour in the real world

helpful for generating research questions and theories

4 limitations of naturualistic observation (behaivoural observations - data collection technique)

difficult to identify causation

behaivours of interest might occur randomly

children may behave differently when being observed

observations can be biased

provide an example of bias in obersvation from study with primates (behavioural observations)

interested in studying human behaviour from primates

found primates were male dominated group

studied larger range of primates

concluded primes were not male dominated (started off with bias)

what is structured observation? provide example:

creating special conditions to eclict behaviours of interest

eg: bandura’s bobo doll experiment

2 strengths of structured observation

more control & less noise

allows for more direct comparisons between children

1 limitation of structured observation:

concerns about whether behaviours in controlled environments will generalise to naturalistic settings

3 types of neural/biological/physiological data collection techniques and what they measure:

EEG, fMRI - brain structure and function

electrodermal activity, heart rate - physiological responses

cortisol levels, DNA - biological measures

2 strengths of neural/physiological/biological measures

hard to fake (or strategically change)

don’t require language or complex behaviours

1 limitation of neural/phisological/biological measures: provide example

can be difficult to interpret

eg: does increased heart rate reflect anger or exitement?

data collection technique example (usuing all 3)

Hubbard (2002)

interested in expression of aggression

did teacher report, structured observation, physiological measures then self report

children played game, other kid in on experiment and instructed to cheat

results: children who showed agression in classroom showed more anger for the task, difference was pronounced more in skin conductance and non-verbal behaviour than self-report and heart rate

what are 4 types of research methods?

case studies, correlational studies, experiments and meta-analysis

what is a case study? provide example: (research methods)

in-depth examination of an indivudal or small number of individuals

eg: Genie - was trapped without socialisation for most of her early life

strength of case studies:

rich information about complex or rare aspects of development

limitation of case studies:

often difficult to generalise findings to other situations or groups

what is a correlational study? (research methods)

determining whether two or more variables are related in a systematic way - correlation coefficent reflects strength and direction of relationship

example of correlation does not imply causation:

ice cream sales are highly correlated with drowning rates

2 strengths of correlational studies

can be used when it is unethical to manipulate variables of interest

allows for multiple factors to be examined

what is an experiment? what 2 variables are included? (research methods)

a variable in manipulated in order to see what effect this has on the measured variable

independent varible (manipulated)

dependent variable (measured0

3 critical features of true experiments:

random assignment, manipulation of independent variable, experimental controls

2 strengths of experiments:

can establish cause and effect

allows for careful controls

2 limitations to experiments

concerns about generalisability to real world conditions, interventions raise ethical concerns

what is meta-analyses

the results of multiple studies addresseing the same question are synthesissed to rpdouce overal conclusions

3 types of developmental research designs

cross-sectional, longitudinal and sequntial

what is a cross-sectional design? provide example

comparing the performance of people of different cohorts (same year/range of years)

eg: comparing self control in 6-8 years olds with 10-12 year olds

strength of cross-sectional design

quick and easy to conduct (don’t need to wait for people to age)

2 limitations of cross-sectional designs?

cannot reveal developmental change and constancy within individuals

age effects and cohort effects are confounded (differences because of age or difference of cohorts)

what is a longitudinal study? provide example:

assessing one group of the same indivudals repeatedly over time

eg: studying a cohort of children from birth to 8 years

strength of longitudinal design:

allow researchers to follow specific developmental trajectoriesl

4 limitations of longitudinal designs:

costly and time consuming

some participants are not sutdied at each time point

potential issues with repeatd testing

are results specific to the cohort?

what are microgenetic designs? (longitudinal designs)

measure the same indivudal or group repeatedly in a relatively smal timespan

what are sequential designs? provide example:

combining the cross-sectional and longitudinal designs

eg: studying the development of memory longitudinally in different age groups

strength of sequential design

can reveal age effects, cohort effects and time of measurement effects (historical events)

2 limitations of sequential designs:

costly and time consuimg

potential issues with repeated testing

3 considerations when designing a study:

reliability, validity and replicability

key idea of reliability:

would similar results be observed if the study were repeated

key idea of validity:

are you measuring what you think you’re measuring

key idea of replicability

do other labs find the same result

2 types of reliability:

test-retest - give the same task/test/measure to the same group of participants, do they perform similarly each time

interrater reliaiblity - do different researchers get the same results when they code the same data

3 types of validity?

interal validity - are changes in the dependent variable driven by different levels of the independent influences

external validity - do the results generalise to other populations and situations

ecological validity - do the results generalise to real world settings

what is the ‘file-drawer’ problem?

researchers chose what gets published, most of research provided in studies may only be the successful ones

what are the big 5 questions in developmental psychology?

nature and nurture

activity and passivity

continuity and discontinuity

universality and context specificity

domain specificity and domain generality

what is epigenetics?

genes born with can be expressed differently, different environments

is it nature or nurture that influences development?

interplay of both

what does activity mean? (activity and passivity)

are we actively shaping our environments and contributing to our own development?

what does passivity mean? (activity and passivity)

are we shaped by biological and environmental forces beyond our control