DevPsy: Midterms L1 - Study of Human Development

Developmental Psychology

LESSON 01: Human Development

Human Development: An Ever-Evolving Field

• The field of human development focuses on the scientific study of the systemic processes of change and stability in people.
• Development scientists look at ways in which people change from conception thru maturity as well as characteristics that remain stable.
• Focus on infant and child development -> life span development.

3 DOMAINS OR ASPECTS OF THE SELF

Physical Development

• A 7^th-month-old baby has a higher change of survival than a 8^th-month-old baby because of the internal growth of the baby
• Increasing brain size

Cognitive Development

• How we process information, involves intelligence, memory, and learning
• Changes that happen in the way we process information from childhood to old age.

Psychosocial Development

• Involves the psychological, emotional, and social development, how we interact with people, how we handle emotions, getting the concept of right or wrong, moral principles, and values.
• These 3 domains are linked and interrelated – thus development is a unified process.

PERIODS OF THE LIFE SPAN

Division of the life span into periods is a social construction.

• Prenatal: Conception to birth
• Infancy: Birth to age 2
• Early Childhood: 2 to 7
• Middle Childhood: 7 to 11
• Adolescence: 11 to 20
• Young Adulthood: 20 to 40
• Middle Adulthood: 40 to 60
• Late Adulthood: 60 onwards

INFLUENCES ON DEVELOPMENT

Heredity

• Inborn traits or characteristics inherited from the biological parents.

Environment

• The world outside the self
• Environmental influences:
  • Family
  • Socio-economic status
  • Culture/Race

Mutation

• Unfolding of a natural sequence of physical changes and behavior patterns naturally happens

Nature vs. Nurture

• Both are equally important.

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON DEVELOPMENT

• Family
• Socio-economic Status
• Culture and Race

HISTORICAL INFLUENCES ON DEVELOPMENT

Normative Influences

• Biological or environmental events that affect many or most people in a society in similar ways.
• Normative Age-Graded Influences
  • Highly similar for people in a particular age group
• Normative History-Graded Influences
  • Significant events that shape the behavior and attitudes of a historical generation (groups of people who experience significant events at the same time)
  • Not to be confused with cohort (group of people born at about the same time)

Non-Normative Influences

• Unusual events that have a major impact on individual lives because they disturb the expected sequence of the cycle.
• Some of the influences are largely beyond a person’s control such as a death of a parent.

TIMING OF INFLUENCES: CRITICAL OR SENSITIVE PERIODS

Concept of Imprinting by Konrad Lorenz

• Observed in ducklings, imprints on the first moving thing they see after hatching.

Critical Period: Specific time when a given event, or its absence has a specific impact on development.

• Mothers shouldn’t be exposed to harmful substances (e.g., teratogens) – as it may abrupt the normal course of development.

THE LIFE SPAN DEVELOPMENT APPROACH –

7 KEY PRINCIPLES OF LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT APPROACH BY PAUL B. BALTES

Development is:

• Lifelong
• Multidimensional
• Multidirectional
• Relative influence of biology and culture shift over the lifespan
• Involves changing resource allocations.
• Shows plasticity.
• Influenced by the historical and cultural context.

LESSON 02: HISTORICAL INFLUENCES

BASIC THEORETICAL ISSUES

Scientific Theory of Development

• A set of logically related concepts or statements that seek to describe and explain the development and to predict the kinds of behavior that might occur under certain conditions.
• Generation of hypothesis: tested by research.
• Theories can be disproved but never proved, thus developmental science cannot be completely objective.

Issue #1: Is Developmental Active or Reactive

• Reactive: Developing child as a hungry sponge that soaks up experiences.
• Active: People create experiences for themselves
• Mechanistic Model
  • People are like machines that react to environmental input.
  • John Locke’s view of a young child as a tabula rasa.
• Organismic Model
  • Jean Jacques Rousseau’s view of children as being noble savages.
  • People initiate events, environmental influences do not cause development.

Issue #2: Is Development Continuous or Discontinuous

• Mechanist theories see development as continuous (Quantitative Change)
• Organismic theorists see development as discontinuous (Qualitative Change)
• Organismic theorists are proponents of stage theories in which development is seen as occurring in a series of distinct stages like stair steps.

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

• Theories can generally characterize as either mechanistic or organismic.
• Perspective 1: Psychoanalytic: Focuses on unconscious emotions and drives.
• Perspective 2: Learning: Studies observable behavior.
• Perspective 3: Cognitive: Analyzes thought processes.
• Perspective 4: Contextual: Emphasizes the impact of historical, social, and cultural context.
• Perspective 5: Evolutionary/Sociobiological: Considers evolutionary and biological underpinnings of behavior.

PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE

Sigmund Freud

• Reactive Development
• Humans were born with a series of innate, biologically based drives such as hunger, sex, and aggression.
• Early experiences shaped later functioning.

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

1. Oral Stage - Birth to 1 Year
   Erogenous Zone: Mouth
2. Anal Stage – 1 to 3 Year
   Erogenous Zone: Bowel and Bladder Control
3. Phallic Stage – 3 to 6 Year
   Erogenous Zone: Genitals
4. Latent Stage – 6 to Puberty
   Libido Inactive
5. Genital Stage – Puberty to Death
   Maturing Sexual Interests

Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Development

• Pioneer in taking a life-span perspective.
• Believed in qualitative change.

LEARNING PERSPECTIVE

• Development result from learning (change in behavior because of experience).
• Development as continuous.

Behaviorism: Classical and Operant Conditioning

• A mechanistic theory that describes observed behavior as a predictable response to experience
• Behaviorists consider development as reactive and continuous.
• Focuses on associative learning (Link formed between two events).
• 2 kinds: Classical and Operant Conditioning.

Social Learning/Social Cognitive Theory

• Bandura suggested that the impetus of development is Bidirectional.
• Reciprocal Determinism
  • The person acts on the world as the world acts on the person.

3 Types of Behavioral Learning

• Classical Conditioning - Ivan Pavlov
  • A neutral stimulus is associated with a natural response.
• Operant Conditioning - B.F Skinner
  • A response is increased or decreased due to reinforcement or punishment.
• Observational Learning
  • Learning occurs through observation and imitation of others.

COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

• Focuses on thought and processes and the behavior that reflects the process.
• Both organismic and mechanistic.

Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Stage Theory

• Piaget viewed development organismically.
• He also believed that development was discontinuous.

Schemes

• Mental patterns, operation, and system. The process of forming and using schemes to understand how the world work is organization.
• Schemes and Organization
  • A child’s scheme of a dog; has 2 ears, a tail, and a fur.
  • A child sees a cat with 2 ears, a tail, and fur.
  • The child says “doggie”.
  • Moment of disequilibrium: An adult says “That’s not a doggie, that’s a kitty. Dogs say bow wow and the kitty says meow”.
    • Adaption/Accommodation: New scheme
      • Doggie: 2 ears, a tail, fur, and bow wow.
      • Kitty: 2 ears, a tail, fur, and meow meow.

Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

• According to Vygotsky, children learn through social interaction.
• Vygotsky’s theory, like Piaget’s stresses children’s active engagement with their environment.
• He saw cognitive growth as a collaborative process.

Information-Processing Approach

• This approach is not a single theory but a framework that supports a wide range of theories and research.
• Explains cognitive development by analyzing the processes involved in making sense of incoming information and performing tasks effectively.
• Comparison of a brain to a computer
• See people as active thinkers.
• Generally, do not speak in terms of stages of development, thus development is continuous.

CONTEXTUAL PERSPECTIVE

• Development can be understood only in the social context – Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory

EVOLUTIONARY/SOCIOBIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

• Proposed by E.O Wilson
• Influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution.
• Evolved Mechanisms
  • Behaviors that developed to solve problems in adapting to earlier environments.
• Ethology
  • Study of the adaptive behaviors of animal species in natural contexts
• Evolutionary Psychology
  • Application of Darwinian Principles to human behavior.

RESEARCH METHODS USED BY DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCHERS

• Quantitative Research vs. Qualitative Research
• Sampling
• Data Collection
  • Self-Reports:
    • Diaries,
    • Visual Techniques,
    • Interviews and
    • Questionnaires
  • Naturalistic Observation
  • Behavioral and Performance Measures

BASIC RESEARCH DESIGNS USED IN DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH

• Case Study
• Ethnographic Study
  • Participant Observation
• Correlational Study
• Laboratory, Field, and Natural Experiments
• Experiment
  • Double Blind Experiments (Experimental vs. Control Groups)
  • Placebo Effect
  • Independent vs. Dependent Variable
  • Random Assignment

DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH STRATEGIES

• Cross-Sectional Study
• Longitudinal Study
• Sequential Study

ETHICS IN RESEARCH

• Informed Consent
• Avoidance of Deception
• Protection From Harm and Loss of Dignity
• Privacy and Confidentiality
• Right to Decline or Withdraw
• Beneficence
• Respect for Participants Autonomy and Protection of those who are unable to exercise their own Judgement.
• Justice