Psychology 2121 - Topic 6 (Emotion and Well-being)

what is development

the systematic continuities and changes between conception and death

what drives development

maturation

learining

maturation

hereditary influence on aging process

leaning

change in behaviour due to experience

Normative Development

typical patterns of most members of a species

ideographic development

individual variations

what is child development

a field of study devoted to understanding constancy and change from conception through adolescence

development science

a larger interdisciplinary field that includes all changes we experience throughout the lifespan

what are the domains of development

Physical - body size, appearance, physical health

cognitive - intellectual abilities

emotional and social - self-understanding, friendships, interpersonal skills

theory

an orderly integrated set of statements that describes, explains, and predicts behaviour

What makes a theory valuable

parsimonious

falsifiable

have heuristic value

What are the basic issues in development?

1. Continuous or discontinuous?

2. One course of development or many possible courses?

3. Relative influence of nature and nurture?

Continuous or Discontinuous Development

continuous: gradually adding more of the same type of skills that were there to begin with

discontinuous: new ways of understanding/responding to the world emerge at specific times

contexts

unique combinations of personal and environmental circumstances that can result in different paths of change

nature vs nurture debate

the debate over relative influence of genetic and environmental factors over an individual differences

stability

Heredity and early experiences are the key to establishing lifelong patterns of behaviour

development systems perspective

Development is an ongoing process molded by a complex network of genetic/biological, psychological, and social influences.

resilience

ability to adapt effectively in the face of threats of development

what are the historical views of childhood

Medieval times: childhood is a separate period of life

Reformation: viewed the child as corrupted and bearing a child as an important responsibility in life

Enlightenment: John Locke- child -> tabula rasa (blank slate), development - continuous

Jean Jacques rousseau - noble savages+ built in moral sense, innate (natural) plan for growth

what is the Charles Darwin theory and what principles does that emphasize

theory - theory of evolution

natural selection, survival of the fittest

Normative approach (G.Hall and Arnold Gesell)

Age-related averages of measures of behaviour taken on large numbers of individuals are computed to represent typical developmentbehavior

what did afred binet and theodore simon develop?

mental testing movement in early 1900s

psychoanalytic perspective

children move through stages in which they confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectations

what theory did sigmeund freud introduce abt development?

psychosexual theory: id, ego and super ego ( superego kicks in the phallic 3-6 yrs stage and develops through latency 6-11 yrs)

what is erik erikson's theory

psychosocial theory: emphasizing ego's positive contribution to development

behaviorism

views directly observable events--stimuli and responses-- as appropriate focus of study

social learning theory (albert bandura)

modeling (imitation or observational learning) as a powerful source of development

what are the contributions of behaviorism and social learning theory

*Applied behaviour analysis: observations of relationships between behavior and environmental events, followed by systematic changes based on conditioning and modeling behavior

* Goal: to eliminate undesirable behaviors and increase desirable responses

What are the limitations of behaviorism and social learning theory?

*narrow view of important environmental influences

* Children's contributions are often underestimated

* Only Bandura's work grants children an active role in their own learning

what is jean piaget's theory

cognitive development theory: children activelyconstruct knowledge as they manipulate and explore the world

-sensorimeter (birth- 2yrs)

-preoperational (2-7yrs)

-concrete operational (7-11yrs)

-formal operational (11years on)

information processing

views human mind as a symbol manipulating system

developmental cognitive neuroscience

studies the relationship between changes in the brain and the child's cognitive processing and behaviour patterns

developmental social neuroscience

studies the relationship between changes in the brain and emotional and social development.

ethology

concerned with the adaptive, or survival, value of behavior and its evolutionary history

roots of ethology (traced to darwin)

imprinting, critical period

what is imprinting

early following behavior of certain baby birds

what is the critical period in animals

limited time span during which the child is biologically prepared to acquire certain adaptive behaviors, if supported by an appropriately stimulating environment.

what is the critical period in humans

time span that is biologically optimal for certain capacities to emerge because the individual is especially responsive to environmental influences

what is evolutionary development psychology

adaptive value of species-wide cognitive, emotional, and social competencies as those competencies change with age

sociocultural theory

Lev Vygotsky - how culture (values, beliefs, customs, and skills of a social group) is transmitted to the next generation

Ecological Systems Theory

views the child as developing within a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels of the surrounding environment

What are the levels in an ecological systems theory

microsystem: how many siblings they have, the parents' relationship might influence a child's behaviour

mesosystem: outside world from the immediate family and school/neighbor- collabs might influence the child's behavior

Exosystem: external world from the child, that could influence the child indirectly, parent's workplace, more stress will indirectly affect the child

macrosystem: bigger society or country- policies related to child care, work, immigration that could affect the child indirectly.

Chronosystem: systems that would change overtime might have some effect, time

what is a hypothesis

a prediction drawn directly from a theory

what are research methods

the specific activities of participants (how you interface with the participants/ what they do)

what are research designs

overall plans for research studies that permit the best possible test of the hypothesis (how many years does the study gonna take place in)

what is reliability

Consistency. does the test give constant outcomes each time?

what is validity

Accuracy. does the test actually measure what its supposed to measure?

What is naturalistic observation?

observation of behavior in the natural environment

What is a structured observation?

observation of behaviours in a laboratory, where conditions are the same for all participants

what is a clinical interview?

A flexible interviewing procedure in which the investigator obtains a complete account of the participant's thoughts

what is a structured interview

self-report instrument in which each participant is asked the same questions the same way

what are psychophysical methods of research

goal is to understand the biological processes involved in perception, cognition, and emotion (measures using heart rate, ERPs, eye tracking)

what are the limitations of psychophysiological methods

~expensive

~ may be difficult to determine which aspect of the stimulus drives biological responses

~ susceptible to interference from other biological processes

what is a case study

provides a full picture of a single individual's psychological functioning (interviews, observations, test scores)

ethnography

descriptive, qualitative technique directed toward understanding a culture or distinct social group