psychological development

PSYCHOLOGY

ETHICAL GUIDELINES:

Integrity: the commitment to searching for knowledge and understanding the honest reporting of all results and information.

Justice: the moral obligation to ensure there is fair consideration of competing claims, no unfair burden on a particular group, and fair distribution of access and benefits of an action. 

Beneficence: the commitment to maximising benefits and minimising the risks and harms involved

Non-maleficence: avoiding causation of harm. If necessary, any resulting harm should not be disproportionate to the benefits

Respect: consideration of the value of living things regarding beliefs, customs, and cultural heritage, and capacity to make decisions. 

Confidentiality: the privacy, protection and security of a participant’s personal information and the anonymity of individual results.

Voluntary participation: no coercion or pressure is put on a participant to partake in an experiment, and they freely choose to be involved.

Informed consent: Participants understand the nature, purpose and risks involved before agreeing to partake. If under 18 or unable to make informed decisions, their guardians can consent for them. 

Withdrawal rights: participants can discontinue their involvement at any time, without penalty, and without giving a reason.

Debriefing: participants must leave understanding the aim, results and conclusion and counselling is provided to ensure no lasting harm

Use of deception in research: concealing the true purpose of the experiment, when knowledge of it would affect validity of results. Only permissible if the benefits outweigh the risks. 

SAMPLING:
RANDOM SAMPLING: A sampling procedure in which every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected to participate.

Advantages:

Should obtain a true representation of the population (hence results can be generalised to the population)

Limitations:

Must have a fairly large sample. 

A complete list of the target population must be available. This is time-consuming

STRATIFIED SAMPLING: Ensuring each subgroup of a characteristic is represented in the sample in the same proportions as it is in the population

Advantages:

highly representative of the population and accurate comparisons 

Limitations:

- time consuming & expensive

ALLOCATION:

Random allocation

• All participants have equal chance of being chosen for each group

• E.g. names pulled out of a hat

Non-random allocation

• Participants DO NOT have equal chance of being chosen for each group

• E.g. All year 10s in control and year 11s in experimental group, or all people with a disorder in experimental and without a disorder in control

• Usually occurs for convenience, or because there is a characteristic essential to the study.

AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT:

Cognitive: Changes in an individual's mental abilities
Emotional: Changes in how an individual experiences and expresses different feelings
Social: Changes in an individual's relationships with others

Nature: the transmission of characteristics from biological parents to their offspring via genes at the time of conception.

Nurture: all the experiences, objects and events to which we are exposed throughout our entire lifetime.

BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL MODEL:

The biopsychosocial model describes how biological, psychological and social factors combine and interact to influence a person’s development and mental wellbeing.

SCHIZOPHRENIA:

The ‘two-hit’ hypothesis proposes that two events — genetic vulnerability and environmental stress — cause the development of schizophrenia. Both events are necessary and must occur in that order.

Symptoms of schizophrenia:

• hallucinations 

• delusions

• disorganised thinking, speech and behaviour

• loss of interest or pleasure in normal activities 

• loss of motivation 

• A decrease in the intensity of emotional expression
  

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT:

Involves changes in how a person experiences, interprets and expresses the full range of emotions and their ability to cope with them appropriately.

Enables children to:

• Build relationships

• Have social awareness 

• Make responsible decisions

Attachment styles:

Secure attachment: the baby uses the caregiver as a ‘safe base’. So is able to explore and play independently, knowing they can return to them for comfort if needed. This means that the caregiver is attentive and meets the infant's needs constantly.

Insecure avoidant attachment: occurs due to abuse or neglect. The infant rarely cries when the caregiver leaves and ignores the caregiver upon return. 

Insecure resistant attachment: results from caregivers who aren’t so responsive to the infants needs. Anxious when the caregiver is near and also when separated. 

Disorganised attachment: when infants are inconsistent when reunited with their caregiver. Responds to reunions with fearful behaviour. Occurs due to abuse, trauma or loss. 

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT:

Piaget viewed cognitive development as a process of adaptation to the changing world.

Schemas: A schema is a mental idea of what something is and how to act on it. A pre-existing idea of what something is and how it acts. 

Assimilation: is the process of taking in new information and fitting it into and making it part of a pre-existing mental idea (schema) about objects or experiences.

• For example, a child may see a truck and call it a car, simply because a car is the only type of vehicle for which the child has a pre-existing mental idea.

Accommodation: involves changing a pre-existing mental idea (schema) in order to fit new information.

• For example, Jane may call the moon a ball (assimilation). When she is older, she learns that not all circular objects are balls. When she recognises the moon as being different from a ball, this is accommodation.

Stages of cognitive development:

Sensorimotor stage: 0-2

• Goal directed behaviour

• Object permanence

Pre-operational stage: 2-7

• symbolic thinking

• reversibility

• transformation

• Animism

• Egocentrism 

• centration
  

Concrete operational stage: 7-12

• Conservation

• Classification

Formal operational stage: 12+

• Abstract thinking

• Idealistic thinking

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT:

Social Development is the continuous, lifelong development of certain skills, attitudes,relationships,and behaviours that enable an individual to interact with others and to function as a member of society.

Maturation: the biologically programmed process of growth that has a fixed sequence and facilitates all aspects of our development as we grow.

The Principle of readiness: suggests that humans cannot complete a new skill until they are both physically and mentally developed enough to do so.

Plasticity: the brain’s ability to physically change shape in response to experience and learning

Critical Periods:

• A narrow, rigid developmental period in which a specific function or skill must be learnt.

• Skills with a set critical period must be learnt during this predetermined period. 

Sensitive Periods:

• A sensitive period is a period of time during development when an individual is more responsive to environmental experiences or learning, but can still learn that skill later on.

TYPICALITY:

Typical: Typical development is when behaviours, skills or abilities fall within the expected range of development or progress at a similar pace compared to peers of the same age

• Typical behaviour means that a person acts as they usually (typically) do. There may be some occasions when behaviour is quite different or inconsistent but such variations are temporary.

Atypical: Development that is not typical. It noticeably differs in a significant way from what is usual or appropriate.

• Atypical behaviour means the person is behaving out of character. For example, a usually friendly outgoing person becomes withdrawn, does not talk or interact with others.

Normality refers to the state of having thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that are considered common and acceptable. 

Abnormality is the state of deviating from the norm, usually in a way that is undesirable.

Adaptive being able to adjust to the environment appropriately and function effectively

Maladaptive being unable to adapt to the environment appropriately and function effectively

APPROACHES TO NORMALITY:

KEY TERMS:

Neurotypicality a term used to describe individuals who display neurological and cognitive functioning  in a way that is typical or expected

Neurodivergent individuals who have a variation in neurological development and functioning

Neurodiversity refers to variations in neurological  development and functioning within and  between groups of people, such as those  experienced by people with autism