Lecture 01 - The Science of Child Development

What is epistemology? What do humans have?

the study of the nature of knowledge

• Where does knowledge come from?

  • e.g. Where does your knowledge of psychology come from? - the fact I've taken psychology courses and built up knowledge

• Tracing back where the info learned came from

• Humans have an epistemological need (we need to know where something came from - e.g. plane crash, COVID, etc.)

What is Platonic Epistemology?

• Knowledge is innate - we are born with knowledge

  • Learning is the development ideas buried deep in the soul

  • Plato believed that each soul existed before birth and with a perfect knowledge of everything

  • When something is 'learned' it is actually just 'recalled'

What is Aristotle Epistemology?

• There are no innate ideas

  • The most reliable way to useful knowledge is through observation and experience

What is rationalism? Who are some key philosophers?

Innate ideas

Senses are poor, unreliable means to knowledge

Most reliable way to gain knowledge and truth is via prior reason and introspection

Philosophers: Plato, Augustine, Anselm, Descartes ('I think there for I am' - he was questioning if the world around him is real?; brain and the vat theory), Spinoza, Leibnitz, (Parmenides?) Liv Please AAPPS

What is empiricism? Who are some key philosophers?

No innate ideas

Senses are reliable an indeed the only means to knowledge

A prior reasoning is fine as far as it goes but it is limited Most reliable way to useful knowledge is through observation and experience

Philosophers: Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke, Berkley, Hume, (Heraclitus?) Belly Losing HAHA

Who was Rousseau and what side did he fall on? What did he believe?

Rousseau 1712-1778

people in their natural state are basically good

• this natural innocence is corrupted by the evils of society

rationalism - we already have something (like ethical principles) in there that is good

Who was Locke and what side did he fall on? What did he believe?

Locke 1632-1704

children are born with minds that are blank states (Tabula Rasa)

• HOWEVER:

  • they are born with some natural inclinations like personality, likes/dislikes

  • born with structures/capacity to incorporate the stuff into (e.g. mechanisms to make associations)

• life experiences form who children become as adults

• EMPIRICISM

• he was precursor of behaviourism

Why did people begin the study of child development?

growing concerns about children’s welfare

e.g. kids sweeping chimneys

• no worker’s union protecting their rights, not able to develop properly, no focus on education, to emotional bonds with people, not fed properly, etc.

What are the 5 theories of child development?

1. biological perspective

2. The Psychodynamic Perspective

3. The Learning Perspective

4. The Cognitive-Developmental Perspective

5. The Contextual Perspective

What is the biological perspective?

development is determined by biological forces

NATURE vs nurture

What is maturational theory?

development reflects the natural unfolding of a pre-arranged biological plan

What is ethological theory?

many behaviours are viewed as adaptive because they have survival value

Who was Charles Darwin?

1809-1882

believed that to understand the development of individuals within a species we can understand how a species developed

development in humans is related to evolutionary stages of related species

• child development stage = monkey development stage

What were Charles Darwin’s baby biographies?

studied the development of his children and documented it

• e.g. how many sentences they produced, when they learned first word, describing newborn reflexes in full detail, etc.

What were Darwin’s 2 main observations?

1. any species of animal will have more offspring then what can survive (due to scarce resources and predators)

2. offspring will have characteristics that differ from others therefore those that are fit to environment pass on these characteristics to their offspring

NATURAL SELECTION

Who is G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924)?

largely influenced by Darwin

believe that child development was based on the premise that growing children would recapitulate evolutionary stages of development as they grew up

• development is a fixed thing

children must go through stages to develop appropriately

it is counterproductive to push the child through those stages too early

Who is Ernst Haeckel?

1834-1919

‘ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny’

• proposed that embryonic development of each organism follows the evolutionary history of its species

• he looked at fetuses and noticed that during post-natal development, they looked like amphibians

Who is Arnold Gesell? What did he propose?

maturation theory

• child development occurs according to a predetermined, naturally unfolding plan of growth

normative approach

• specific stages on how children develop

• preferred nature over nurture and believed that genetics is main driver BUT environment has some impact

• sequential process for development of every individual

  • variation is due to genetics

What did Arnold Gesell contribute to?

education system

• at a certain age, child should be able to learn this

What were other concepts that Gesell explored?

identified cephalic vs. caudal and distal vs. proximal

explored handedness

• a child can be both but eventually settles on one

explored personality and introversion vs extroversion

• a child can be both but eventually settles on one

What 2 concepts did Konrad Lorenz discover?

1. critical period

2. imprinting

What is a critical period?

a time during which a child is ready and able to learn something (not too early or too late)

• a time window

  • certain skills or functions must be learned or practiced, otherwise they may never fully develop

  • The brain is highly plastic in these periods

  • After the critical period closes, the same experiences may have much less impact, or the ability to learn that skill may be lost

What is imprinting?

• Forming an emotional bond between child and the first moving object (usually the mother)

• Experimented with chicks

  • If chicks hatched and the first thing they saw was him, they followed him

What are the three components of personality in Freud’s psychodynamic theory?

id, ego, superego

What is the id? Give example.

The unconscious, impulsive part of the mind, driven by the pleasure principle. It is irrational, seeks immediate gratification, and ignores reality and morality

need/desires

largest portion of mind

e.g. A child in a store wants everything they see without considering rules or consequences

What is the superego? When does it develop?

The moral conscience, develops around ages 3–6 through interactions with caregivers

Represents rules, rewards, punishments, and can induce anxiety, guilt, or fear when broken.

Operates both consciously and unconsciously

What is the ego? When does it emerge

The conscious, rational part of the personality, governed by the reality principle

emerges in early infancy

It mediates between the id’s desires and the superego’s rules, finding acceptable ways to satisfy impulses

How does Freud believe children’s personality develops?

Through conflicts during psychosexual stages as children struggle between desires (id) and societal expectations (superego)

What are defence mechanisms in Freud’s theory?

ego will defend against id

Unconscious strategies used by the ego where person turns urges into something more acceptable

What are examples of defence mechanisms?

some who cheats on their spouse bringing home flowers to act ‘extra nice’

e.g. displacement, denial

What is the preconscious?

thoughts and memories not currently in awareness but easily brought to mind

What is the oral stage? List period of development and description?

birth-1 year

erogenous zone = mouth

ego directs baby’s sucking activities toward breast/bottle

if oral needs not met:

• in childhood → thumb sucking, finger nail biting

• later life → overeating and smoking

oral need has the appropriate amount of discipline vs. strict parent/submissive parent could result in developmental problems

What is the anal stage? List period of development and description?

1-3 years

Toddlers and preschoolers enjoy holding and releasing urine and feces

Toilet training is issue for parent and child

if parent insists that child be trained before they are ready = extreme orderliness and cleanliness VS if they are too submissive = messiness and disorder

What is the phallic stage? List period of development and description.

3-6 years

preschoolers take pleasure in genital stimulation

• Children feel sexual desire for other-sex desire BUT to avoid punishment they give this up and adopt same-sex parent's characteristics

  • The strength of anxiety, guilt, fear can cause problem in development

What is Freud’s Oedipus conflict for boys?

• boys secretly falls in love with mother (completely unconscious), becomes afraid that father will punish since father is big and scary so joins side of father, finds his male personality through father

  • Castration anxiety (strength of this can lead to developmental problems)

What is Freud’s Electra conflict for girls?

• girls develop attraction toward the father and feelings of rivalry or jealousy toward the mother

• Freud explained this through “penis envy”, the idea that girls notice anatomical differences and feel deprived

• Resolution comes when the girl identifies with her mother since they are both ‘castrated’, internalizing her values and attitudes

What is the latency stage? List period of development and description.

6-11 years

sexual instincts die down as superego develops

• boys stick with boys and girls stick with girls

child starts to acquire new social values from adults and peers outside of family

What is the genital stage? List period of development and description.

adolescence

with puberty, sexual impulses of phallic stage reappear

• if development has been ‘successful’ during earlier stages, it leads to partner, marriage, mature sexuality, etc.

• stage extends through adulthood

Give some example of psychosexual fixations if development has not been successful. (oral, anal, phallic)

Oral fixations  - smoking, gum-chewing, nail-biting

Anal fixations - orderliness, obsessiveness, rigidity

Phallic fixations - vanity, exhibitionism, pride (anything with a sexual connotation)

Who was Erik Erikson and what did he propose? What did he think of Freud?

neo Freudian

believed that stages of psychosocial development are defined by a unique challenge

• each stage involves crisis that must be solved

believed that Freud had too much emphasis on sexuality and not enough on social environment

proposed lifespan theory

What is basic trust vs. mistrust? What is the period of development and description?

birth-1 year

How is the parent responsive to child?

with warm and responsive care, infants gain a sense of trust or confidence that the world is good

mistrust occurs when infants have to wait too long for comfort or are handled too harshly

What is autonomy vs. shame and doubt? What is the period of development and description?

1-3 years

Can a child do something by itself?

using new mental and motor skills, children want to choose and decide for themselves (e.g. pouring a glass of milk by themselves)

parents foster autonomy by permitting reasonable free choice and not forcing or shaming the child

e.g. Smack the glass and yell no = doubt and shame in oneself

e.g. Lets them try to pour = child is becoming independent and developing a sense of autonomy

What is initiative vs. guilt and doubt? What is the period of development and description?

3-6 years

children experiment with make believe play and the kind of person they can become

• initiative, ambition, responsibility develop with parents support their child

• when parents demand too much self-control, children induce excessive guilt

What is industry vs. inferiority? What is the period of development and description?

6-11 years

at school children develop the capacity to work and cooperate with others (first time they are exposed to others beside parents)

• inferiority develops when negative experiences at home, at school or with peers lead to feelings of incompetence

What is identity vs. role confusion? What is the period of development and description?

adolescence (adolescence crisis)

Who am I? What is my place in society?

• by exploring values and goals, young person forms personal identity

• negative outcome is confusion about future adult roles

  • if role confusion goes on too long, it can be limiting

What is intimacy vs. isolation? What is the period of development and description?

early adulthood

• Do you want to be by yourself in life or are you going to have a life with someone else?

  • young people work on establishing intimate ties to others

  • Because of earlier disappointment some individuals cannot form close relationships and remain isolated

What is generativity vs. stagnation? What is the period of development and description?

middle adulthood

• Are you generating/helping someone?

  • contributing to the next generation in different capacities

  • Stagnation - you are not helping anyone therefore you are not that useful of a society member or there is an absence of meaningful accomplishment

What is integrity vs. despair? What is the period of development and description?

late adulthood

elders reflect on the kind of person they have been

• integrity results from feeling that life was worth living

• those who feel dissatisfied with their lives fear death

What did Erikson say about his stages in terms of imagining them?

it is hard to imagine yourself in a future stage

Who was B.F. Skinner and what did he believe?

father of behaviourism

believed that psychology shouldn’t be the study of the mind (since it is unobservable)

instead study what is observable → human behaviour (controlling environment)

What is operant conditioning?

Skinner

behaviour using reinforcement and punishment

Is learning continuous in behaviourist view?

yes!

unlike Freud and Erikson’s stages

What is positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment?

PR = positive behaviour followed by positive consequence

• Skinner said this is the best way to teach a child

NR = positive behaviour followed by removal of negative consequence

PP = negative behaviour followed by negative consequence

NR = negative behaviour followed by removal of positive consequence

• e.g. ‘you do this and I take away your video games’

What is stimulus control of environment? Give example.

behaviour is influenced by environmental cues because those cues signal that reinforcement or punishment is available

e.g. You only answer your phone when you see your friend’s name on the caller ID, not when it’s an unknown number.

• The caller ID is the stimulus that controls your answering behaviour.

What is occasion setting? Give example.

an environmental cue that signals when a particular response will be reinforced

• E.g. 'study in same space in room'

  • After doing that a few times, that place is associated with 'if you study there, you will do well'

  • When you sit at desk, it triggers your study behaviour but also a sense of accomplishment

    Desk is occasion setter (via operant conditioning)

What is a discriminative stimulus?

A specific type of stimulus that signals a behaviour will be reinforced

direct reinforcement

How can a child knowing which parent to ask for things describe occasion setting?

• child knows how to ask the mother vs. father for the same thing

  • Person (mother/father) is the occasion setting

What is shaping? (think in terms of learning a new task)

target behaviour is built by reinforcing successive approximations of that behaviour

do this (reward) → do this plus this (reward)

• eventually you stop rewarding the first behaviour

What did Skinner believe that personality was?

a mental concept

he said ‘Give me a history of your rewards and punishments and their environment and it can predict why you act the way you do’

What is the difference between reinforcement and reward?

reinforcement is a consequence that increases the probability of a response (positive or negative)

reward is if it doesn’t increase probability

What is generalization>

process by which a learned response spreads to new situations

What did Pavlov study?

classical conditioning

forming associations between stimuli

What did Pavlov believe about reflexes? Give example with dog.

that they could be molded

believed at the time: ‘dogs only salivate for food’

• He took a stimulus (a bell), rang it and dog did nothing. Ring bell, put food (repeat this) and there is salivation. Ring bell by itself and dog starts to salivate

  • Therefore reflexes are not innate and they can even be learned

Who was Watson and describe his Little Albert experiment? What is this a theory for?

behaviourist

• exposed Albert to a variety of neutral stimuli. Albert loved the rat, experimenters started making banging noises when rat was around and Albert cried (repeat this), Albert had fear of rat now

  • Neutral stimulus (rat) -> conditioned stimulus

  • Banging of noise was unconditioned stimulus

theory for how phobias develop

What did Bandura propose for learning perspective?

NOT ALL through conditioning

children can learn by observing others

• imitation

What did Bandura say about self-efficacy?

self-efficacy is an individual’s belief in his or her capacity to execute behaviours necessary to produce specific performance attainment

• confidence in one’s ability to have control over behaviour

How does self-efficacy develop in children?

children need to do tasks on their own and receive positive reinforcement

Describe someone who has high self-efficacy?

new job

‘I’ve tried new things before, I can do this’

Describe someone who has low emotional self-efficacy? What did Bandura believe about humans and low self-efficacy?

‘I want this job but I’m too afraid of messing up, I just won’t show up’

‘I want to go to this party but I can’t go if that guy is there because I won’t be able to hold myself back’

Bandura believe that humans are plastic and can increase their self-efficacy

What was the Bobo doll experiment? What was observed when children had gun?

• Kids watch the parents/models interact with Bobo doll

  • Some parent are mean to Bobo doll (punch, kick)

  • Some parents interact positively with Bobo doll

• Kids that watched parents be mean to Bobo doll, were also mean

child doesn’t only model specific behaviour but generally models aggression (children that watched violent model picked up gun even though model didn’t use it)

this study showed NO REINFORCEMENT and only through observation

What type of learning is observational? Does it continue past childhood?

continuous process

happens throughout our lives

What is the cognitive-developmental perspective?

children participate in their own development

children are viewed as little scientists who develop and revise theories with experience

What are circular reactions? Use example of child throwing spoon and parent picking it up.

• E.g. child sits in high chair and spoon of food falls on floor, parent picks up spoon, child throws spoon again, etc.

  • Child is doing this as a form of experiment

    • What happens if I do this with the spoon? Child wants to see this again and again

What are Piaget’s 4 stages?

sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

What is the sensorimotor stage with age and characteristics?

birth-2 years

knowledge is based in senses and motor skills

• child cannot use imagination, they actually have to do it

• by end child uses mental representations

What is the preoperational stage with age and characteristics?

2-6 years

• children use symbols (words, numbers) to represent aspects

  • relates to world only from his/her perspective

  • cannot understand that others see world differently

What is the concrete operational stage with age and characteristics?

7-11 years

child understands and applies logical operations

• only relates to here and now

• cannot form hypothetical situations

  • what would happen if you did this differently?

What is the formal operational stage with age and characteristics?

adolescence+

think abstractly on hypothetical situations and reason

What is the contextual perspective?

development is determined by immediate and more distant environments and how that influences each other

What is Vyogtsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)? What is ZAD?

ZPD = what can I do with help

• what needs to be done to take learner where he needs to be

• scaffolding (eventually remove this and learner can do alone)

ZAD (zone of achieved development) = what can I do

Is ZPD continuous or in stages?

continuous

we learn and have this ZPD our whole lives

What theory did Brofenbrenner propose?

ecological systems theory

development within a set of systems

What are Bronfenbrenner’s systems?

microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem

What is child’s microsystem?

•  the child itself and what is in the child's immediate environment (whatever the child has access to)

  • Immediate family, child-care, etc.

What is child’s mesosystem?

•  the interaction between these immediate systems

  • E.g. parents go and talk to the daycare

What is child’s exosystem?

• beyond the immediate environment but that still influence the child

  • Workplace of parents, extended family, etc.

What is child’s macrosystem?

laws, values and customs of society

What is child’s chronosystem?

how things change overtime and as you age

What are 4 themes of child-development research?

1. Early development is related to later development but not perfectly

• Freud and early stages of development

  2. Development is always jointly influenced by heredity and environment (nature and nurture)

• Skinner believed that he could make a child turn into anything (lawyer, doctor, thief)

  3. Children influence their own development

• Piaget

  4. Development in different domains is connected

• What are the different domains?

  • Motor, behavioural, cognitive, emotional, social

    • They are all connected

What is the continuity-discontinuity issue?

Continuous

• Children stay on the same path throughout development

Discontinuous

• Children can change paths at any point in development

development is not totally flexible or predictable

What is the nature-nurture debate?

Nature and nurture interact with each other to influence development

What is the active-passive child issue?

once believed that children were only passive recipients on their environment

children interpret their experiences and often actively influence the experiences that they have

passive (out of child’s control), active (in child’s control), evocative (child evokes something for parents and they exploit what they see to help them develop)