Child Development chapter 1

for exam 1

Child Development is the study of what areas:

biological, social, cognitive, and emotions

Major questions

1) How do children change as they develop?

2) What are the determinants of these developmental changes?

Urie Brionfenbrenner concluded that ecological environment states that

the developing child is embedded in a series of complex and interactive systems

Microsystem

Setting in which child lives and interacts with others

For example: School, playground, home

Mesosystem:

Inter-relations among the different microsystems

examples: school and family

What happens in the child in one setting influences the child in a different setting

Exosystem

Settings that influence child’s development that the child does not play an direct role

example: parents workplace, school board

Macrosystem

Ideological and institutional patterns of the culture

example: attitudes and beliefs related to spanking → Exosystem, but more cultural

Chronosystem

Environmental experiences and life transitions that occur throughout a child’s life, including any sociohistorical events

example: birth of a sibling; school change; war

Common question is if development is gradual or stage like

Known as the continuity-disconuity view

Continuous view

Change occurs gradually and continuously

Quantitative changes

change in degree or amount

Discontinuous view

Change occurs with abrupt changes or stages (discontinuous)

Qualitative changes

changes in form or kind

ex: caterpillar→butterfly

Nature-nuture issue

Nature= biology

Nurture=environment

Nature and nurture interact with each other to influence development

Child help determine their own development

known as the active-passive child issue

Active

Child shapes their own development

ex: influences self

Passive

Child passive recipient of environmental influences

example: clay being molded

Todays view: transactional development

Reciprocating influences of the environment and the child on each other

Holistic Nature of Development Issue

Different aspects of development are interrelated and influence each other