Ch 1. History, Theory, and Research Strategies Flashcards
Developmental Science
a field of study devoted to understanding what remains constant and what changes throughout the lifespan.
How has Developmental Science been applied?
Ex. With the beginning of public education in the early twentieth century, Developmental Science offered knowledge about what and how to teach children of different ages.
Ex. With the interest of the medical profession in improving people’s health, Developmental Science offered an understanding of physical development, nutrition, and disease.
Interdisciplinary
from many fields of study (eg. Biology, Anthropology, Sociology)
Theory
KEYWORDS: An orderly, integrated set of statements that describes, explains, and predicts behavior.
For example, a good theory of infant–caregiver attachment would:
(1) describe the behaviors of babies of 6 to 8 months of age as they seek the affection and comfort of a familiar adult,
(2) explain how and why infants develop this strong desire to bond with a caregiver, and
(3) predict the consequences of this emotional bond for future relationships.
Why are theories important?
KEYWORDS: Provides ORGANIZING framework and a FOUNDATION for action.
1) They provide ORGANIZING frameworks for our observations of people. In other words, they give meaning to what we see.
2) Theories verified by research provide a FOUNDATION for practical action, allowing us to improve the welfare and treatment of children and adults.
How do theories differ from opinion or belief?
Unlike opinion or belief, A theory’s continued existence depends on scientific verification.
Why does the study of development provide no ultimate truth?
Keywords: DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS lead to different answers.
Investigators have DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS of what they see, so the same date can create multiple conclusion, and therefore prevents a clear ‘truth’ or ‘law’ of development.
What does it mean – Nature Vs. Nurture?
KEYWORDS:
NATURE = Heredity = STABLE
NURTURE = Environment = PLASTICITY
Are genetic or environmental factors more important?
By NATURE, we mean the hereditary information we receive from our parents at the moment of conception. Theorists that emphasize STABILITY – that individuals who are high or low in a characteristic (eg. verbal ability, coordination) will remain so at later ages – typically stress the importance of heredity.
By NURTURE, we mean the complex forces of the physical and social world that influence our biological makeup and psychological experiences before and after birth. Theorists who emphasize early experiences as establishing a lifelong pattern of behavior tend to regard the environment as important. They also site PLASTICITY – the ever-forming of new behaviors over the course of a lifetime. Although all theories grant roles to both nature and nurture, they vary in emphasis.
What is the difference between Continuous and Discontinuous Development?
KEYWORDS:
CONTINUOUS = Smooth = Children and adults think alike, differ only by a matter of complexity.
DISCONTINUOUS = Stages = Children think differently from adults. Change comes in leaps.
CONTINUOUS Development says that infants respond to the world the same as adults do, albeit with less complexity, and that their development is simply a gradual increase in complexity of the skills that were with us since birth. (Think of a smooth line representing growth in complexity).
DISCONTINUOUS Development says that infants and adults have a completely different way of looking at the wold and so development comes with new ways of understanding the world around them.(Think of a set of steps with each step representing a new way of thinking) This is known as a ‘STAGE THEORY” because development happens in distinct STAGES.
Stage Development
Keyword: DISCONTINUOUS
DISCONTINUOUS Development that says that development happens in DEFINABLE STAGES (Think of a set of steps with each step representing a new way of thinking) Change is fairly sudden rather than gradual and ongoing.
What does context have to do with development?
Keywords: CONTEXT = ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES = NURTURE
Context’ is the SURROUNDING and INFLUENCES of the person that affect their development – like heredity, home, school, nutrition, relationships, etc. Different contexts are powerful influences that can cause a person’s development to vary from others living within different contexts.
Plasticity
KEYWORDS: Constant CHANGE through Life
This refers to the development as being open to change in response to influential experiences throughout life.
Stability Vs. Plasticity
The STABILITY of Nature (Hereditary Influences from birth on) Vs. The PLASTICITY of Nurture (Environmental Influences varying throughout life)
What is the “Lifespan Perspective”?
KEYWORDS: Development occurs throughout the lifetime
Unlike some theories that assume development stops at adolescence, the Lifespan Perspective says gains in functioning continue throughout a person’s lifetime. It says that development is:
1) lifelong
2) Multi-dimensional (blend of biological, psychological, and social forces) and Multi-directional (Development can result in both growth and decline)
3) Highly Plastic
4) Affected by multiple interacting forces
Seems to weigh heavy on the side of NURTURE but certainly recognizes the powerful impact of NATURE
Includes both CONTINUOUS and DISCONTINUOUS development.
Looks at Physical, Cognitive (thinking), and Emotional/social influences and sees development as having many potential pathways and outcomes depending on the branching possibilities of these three aspects and the ways they interact.
Both CONTINUOUS and DISCONTINUOUS, BOTH NATURE and NURTURE
Age-Graded Influences
KEYWORDS: Age-related development is PREDICTABLE, like walking around your first birthday.
Events that are strongly related to age and therefore fairly predictable in when they occur and how long they last are called age graded influences.
For example, most individuals walk shortly after their first birthday, acquire their native language during the preschool years, reach puberty around age 12 to 14.
This is a NORMATIVE influence.
History Graded Influences
KEYWORDS: Historical events profoundly affect development.
Development is also profoundly affected by forces unique to a particular historical era. Examples include epidemics, wars, and periods of economic prosperity or depression; technological advances like the introduction of television, computers, the Internet, smartphones, and tablets.
This is a NORMATIVE influence.
Resiliency
KEYWORDS: The ability to adapt effectively in the face of threats.
The ability to adapt effectively in the face of threats to development Four Factors offer greater resiliency:
1) having an easygoing temperament, able to inhibit negative emotions and impulses
2) a warm parental relationship with at least one parent
3) social support outside the immediate family – caring teachers and law-abiding social groups
4) Community support – camps, schools, sports leagues, interest groups
Cohort
KEYWORDS: A group of people born around the same time…
…that tend to be alike in ways (due to this common historical-graded influence) that set them apart from people born at other times.
Normative Influences
Keywords: NORMATIVE = NORMAL (or usual, typical, average)
Normative Influences are events that are typical or average because they affect large numbers of people in a similar way.
(includes Age-graded and History-graded influences)
Nonnormative Influences
Keywords: NONNORMATIVE = NOT NORMAL (or not typical)
Nonnormal Influences are events that are irregular. They happen to just one person or to a few people and do not follow a predictable timetable.
Over the past decades, the incidents of NONNORMATIVE influences have become much MORE powerful as the historical ‘norms’ of society have been shattered, allowing anyone to do pretty much anything they wish regardless of gender, age, etc.
People go to school in late adulthood. People get married much later. Social freedom is available at a much younger age. etc. As a result, normative (or normal) influences have become much LESS powerful over the years.
Normative Approach (Hall and Gessell)
KEYWORDS: Measures what is NORMAL (or Typical) DEVELOPMENT and compares against that.
MEASURES the behavior of large numbers of individuals, and age-related averages are computed to represent TYPICAL development. Note that ‘typical’ development, and thus the standard by which all other behavior is measured, is determined simply by how ‘most’ people behave in a particular situation, right or wrong.
Stanford-Binet
First IQ test, which aimed to customize education for a wide range of students. This is a NORMATIVE approach to development (MEASURE what is TYPICAL)
Psychoanalytic perspective (Sigmund Freud, founder of the psychoanalytic movement, and Erik Erikson)
KEYWORDS: Looks at how people deal with conflicts between biological drives (ID) and social expectations (SuperEgo)
Says people move through a series of stages in which they confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectations. How these conflicts are resolved determines the person’s ability to learn, to get along with others, and to cope with anxiety.
DISCONTINUOUS, BOTH NATURE and NURTURE
Strength: Emphasizes an individual’s unique life history as worthy of understanding (Uses ‘Clinical’ or ‘Case Study’ Methods)
Weakness: Most of these ideas are too vague to be tested.
Psychosexual Theory (Freud)
KEYWORDS: Emphasizes that how parents manage their child’s sexual and aggressive drives in the first few years is crucial for healthy personality development.
Says the mind consists of 3 Parts:
ID – the source of basic biological needs and desires (the primitive mind)
SuperEgo – part of the mind that adheres to the norms and laws of society
Ego – Rational conscious part of the mind that works to balance the primal nature of the ID with the contemporary rules of the SuperEgo.
Psychosocial Theory (Erikson)
KEYWORDS: More important role for Ego, Added Adult Developmental Stages to Freud’s theory
Added to Freud’s theory by suggesting that in addition to mediating between id impulses and superego demands, the ego makes a positive contribution to development, acquiring attitudes and skills that make the individual an active, contributing member of society. He also added three ‘adult’ stages to Freud’s ‘Five Stages’ of development, pushing the theories closer to a Lifespan perspective. Unlike Freud, Erikson pointed out that normal development must be understood in relation to each culture’s life situation.
Behaviorism Theory
Keywords: OBSERVABLE BEHAVIOR
Focuses on Directly observable events and behavior.
Pavlov observed that two neutral stimuli (in this case, food and a bell) could become associated in such a way that the presence of one (a bell) could produce a behavioral reaction (salivating) typically associated with the presence of the other (food) – also known as Classical Conditioning.
CONTINUOS, Emphasis on NATURE
Strength: Applied behavior analysis consists of careful observations of individual behavior and related environmental events, followed by systematic changes in those events based on procedures of conditioning and modeling. The goal is to eliminate undesirable behaviors and increase desirable responses.
Weakness: behaviorism and social learning theory offer too narrow a view of important environmental influences, which extend beyond immediate reinforcement, punishment, and modeled behaviors to people’s rich physical and social worlds.
Classical Conditioning
KEYWORDS: Associates a NEUTRAL STIMULUS (bell) with an UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS (food) to produce a CONDITIONED RESPONSE (Salivating)
Pavlov observed that two neutral stimuli (in this case, food and a bell) could become associated in such a way that the presence of one (a bell) could produce a behavioral reaction (salivating) typically associated with the presence of the other (food) – also known as Classical Conditioning. This conditioning can be applied to humans and other animals
Albert Watson
KEYWORDS: Watson is a monster for doing this to a baby
Inspired by Pavlov – applied classical conditioning to humans Conditioned a baby to respond fearfully to a soft toy by presenting the toy along with a terrifyingly loud sound. After a short while, the baby was terrified of the soft toy without any sound being produced. (What’s wrong with these people?)
Operant Conditioning Theory
Keywords: Uses REINFORCERS and PUNISHMENT to change behavior
Type of Behaviorism promoted by B. F. Skinner – said that ‘reinforcers’ such as food or praise will help expedite conditioning
B. F. Skinner
KEYWORDS: Skinner Skins those with bad behavior
B. F. Skinner – said that ‘reinforcers’ such as food or praise will help expedite conditioning, while punishment decreases undesirable behavior – known as OPERANT CONDITIONING THEORY
Social Learning Theory
Keywords: CONSCIOUS Learning through IMITATION and MODELLING
Albert Bandura promoted the idea of imitation, observational learning, and MODELING a powerful source of development.
Stresses cognition, or thinking, a conscious effort to learn the behavior – as opposed to conditioning, which is subconscious.
CONTINUOS, Emphasis on NATURE
Strength:
Weakness: behaviorism and social learning theory offer too narrow a view of important environmental influences, which extend beyond immediate reinforcement, punishment, and modeled behaviors to people’s rich physical and social worlds.
Cognitive Development Theory (Piaget)
KEYWORDS: Children actively LEARN as they MANIPULATE and EXPLORE their world
Piaget did not believe that children’s learning depends on reinforcers, such as rewards from adults. According to his Cognitive Developmental Theory, children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world.
Promoted the concept of ADAPTION – the mind develops to better fit with, or adapt to, the external world.
Piaget claimed that children’s understanding of the world was different from adults (ex: Baby’s think things disappear from existence when they are out of sight) and thus, development advances in stages.
This thinking makes his theory – DISCONTINUOUS. BOTH NATURE and NURTURE
Adaptation
KEYWORDS: The MIND ADAPTS to the WORLD around it
Central Idea to Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory – Adaptation = Just as structures of the body are adapted to fit with the environment, so structures of the mind develop to better fit with, or represent, the external world. The mind Adapts its understanding to what it observes in the world around it.
Information Processing Perspective
Keywords: INPUT, PROCESSING, OUTPUT
The human mind might also be viewed as a symbol-manipulating system through which information flows—a perspective called information processing. From the time information is presented to the senses at input until it emerges as a behavioral response at the output, information is actively coded, transformed, and organized. The Information Processing approach regards people as actively making sense of their own thinking.
CONTINUOS, BOTH NATURE and NURTURE
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
KEYWORDS: Studies the RELATIONSHIP between changes in the BRAIN and the developing person’s THOUGHTS/BEHAVIORS.
…brings together researchers from psychology, biology, neuroscience, and medicine to study the relationship between changes in the brain and the developing person’s cognitive processing and behavior patterns. Improved methods for analyzing brain activity while children and adults perform various tasks have greatly enhanced knowledge of relationships between brain functioning and behavior
Developmental Social Neuroscience
…devoted to studying the relationship between changes in the physical brain during emotional and social development.
Ethology
… is concerned with the adaptive, or survival value of BEHAVIOR and its EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY.
Both CONTINUOUS and DISCONTINUOUS, BOTH NATURE and NURTURE
Sensitive Period
Keywords: OPTIMAL TIME for DEVELOPMENT (eg. Language)
… is a time that is biologically optimal for certain capacities to emerge because the individual is especially responsive to environmental influences (Eg. New languages are best learned as a child). However, its boundaries are less well-defined than those of a critical period. Development can occur later, but it is harder to induce.
Evolutionary Developmental Psychology
Keywords: EVOLUTION’s effects on our psychological DEVELOPMENT
Seeks to understand the adaptive value of species-wide cognitive, emotional, and social competencies as those competencies change with age (eg. tries to understand why children play in gender-segregated groups, or play-fight, or why babies prefer to look at faces over all else. What is the evolutionary necessity and consequence of such behaviors?)
Both CONTINUOUS and DISCONTINUOUS, BOTH NATURE and NURTURE
Sociocultural Theory (Vygotsky)
Keywords: LEARN from SOCIAL INTERACTION with WISER ADULTS
Essentially says that children learn from wiser adults. It focuses on how culture—the values, beliefs, customs, and skills of a social group—is transmitted to the next generation. According to Vygotsky, social interaction —in particular, cooperative dialogues with more knowledgeable members of society—is necessary for children to acquire ways of thinking and behaving that make up a community’s culture.
Both CONTINUOUS and DISCONTINUOUS, BOTH NATURE and NURTURE
Ecological Systems Theory ( Bronfenbrenner )
Keywords: Development through NESTED structures, MICRO, MESO, EXO, MACRO systems (MMEM).
…views the person as developing within a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels of the surrounding environment as a series of nested structures, with the innermost called:
The Microsystem – consisted of the environment and influences DIRECTly around the individual. There are actually multiple microsystems for each person (eg. immediate family, school, close social groups)
Mesosystem – Connects all the Microsystems together to represent the collection of closest influences
Exosystem – next layer of influence (eg. Extended family, workplace, friends and neighbors)
Macrosystem – cultural values, laws, customs that affect the greater society In ecological systems theory, development is neither controlled by environmental circumstances nor driven solely by inner dispositions. Rather, people are both products and producers of their environments: The person and the environment form a network of interdependent effects.
(Continuity not specified) Both NATURE and NURTURE
Microsystem (Ecological Systems Theory)
Keywords: DIRECTLY around the individual
Microsystem – consisted of the environment and influences DIRECTLY around the individual. There are actually multiple microsystems for each person (eg. immediate family, school, close social groups)
Mesosystem (Ecological Systems Theory)
Keywords: CONNECTS all MICROSYSTEMS
Mesosystem – Connects all the Microsystems together to represent the collection of closest influences
Exosystem (Ecological Systems Theory)
Keywords: LAYER OUTSIDE MICROSYSTEM
Exosystem – next layer of influence (eg. Extended family, workplace, friends and neighbors)
Macrosystem (Ecological Systems Theory)
Keywords: Layer of overall SOCIETY
Macrosystem – cultural values, laws, customs that affect the greater society
Chronosystem (Ecological Systems Theory)
This is how these changes take place over TIME
Comparing Theories
Emphasize Emotional and Social Development
psychoanalytic perspective
ethology
Emphasize Changes in Thinking
Cognitive-developmental theory (Piaget)
Information processing
Sociocultural theory (Vygotsky)
Emphasize – Many aspects of Human Functioning
Behaviorism
Social learning theory
Evolutionary developmental psychology
Ecological systems theory
Lifespan perspective
Hypothesis
Keywords: TESTABLE PREDICTION
A Prediction that can be tested
Naturalistic Observation (Research Method)
Keywords: OBSERVES Behavior in NATURAL CONTEXT
Observation of behavior in natural contexts Strength: Reflects participants’ everyday lives.
Weakness: Cannot control the conditions under which participants are observed.
Structured Observations (Research Method)
Keywords: OBSERVATION of behavior in a LABORATORY
…where conditions are the same for all participants
Strength: Grants each participant an equal opportunity to display the behavior of interest.
Weakness: May not yield observations typical of participants’ behavior in everyday life – due to the artificial setting.
Clinical Interview (Research Method)
Keywords: a FLEXIBLE, COMPLETE account of participant THOUGHTS
Flexible interviewing procedure in which the investigator obtains a complete account of the participant’s thoughts
Strength: Comes as close as possible to the way participants think in everyday life. Great breadth and depth of information can be obtained in a short time.
Weakness: May not result in accurate reporting of information (eg. because those being interviewed might try to give the answer that sounds best to the interviewer rather than the REAL answer). The flexible procedure makes comparing individuals’ responses difficult.
Structured Interview, Questionnaire, test (Research Method)
Keywords: SELF-REPORTED answers to STANDARD QUESTIONS
Self-report instruments in which each participant is asked the same questions in the same way
Strength: Permits comparisons of participants’ responses and efficient data collection. Researchers can specify answer alternatives that participants might not think of in an open-ended interview.
Weakness: Does not yield the same depth of information as a clinical interview. Responses are still subject to inaccurate reporting.
Clinical or Case Study Method (Research Method)
Keywords: FULL PICTURE of an INDIVIDUAL
A full picture of one individual’s psychological functioning, obtained by combining interviews, observations, and test scores
Strength: Provides rich, descriptive insights into factors that affect development.
Weakness: May be biased by researchers’ theoretical preferences. Findings cannot be applied to individuals other than the participant.
Ethnography (Research Method)
Keywords: DETAILED OBSERVATIONS of an entire CULTURE or SOCIAL GROUP
Participant observation of a culture or distinct social group. By making extensive field notes, the researcher tries to capture the culture’s unique values and social processes Strength:
Provides a more complete description than can be derived from a single observational visit, interview, or questionnaire.
Weakness: May be biased by researchers’ values and theoretical preferences. Findings cannot be applied to individuals and settings other than the ones studied.
Correlational Design (Research Design)
Keywords: Looks at CORRELATION among PARTICIPANTS’ BEHAVIOR for patterns
Researchers gather information on individuals, generally in natural life circumstances, without altering their experiences. Then they look at relationships between participants’ characteristics and their behavior or development.
Correlation Coefficient
Keywords: -1 NEGATIVE CORRELATION to +1 POSITIVE CORRELATION. Closer to ZERO = NO CORRELATION
A number that describes how two variables, are associated with each other. It ranges between -1 and +1 where a value of 0 means there is no relationship between the two variables. A number closer to – means that as one variable goes up, the other variable goes down – called a negative correlation. A number closer to +1 means that as one variable goes up, the other variable goes up as well – called a positive correlation The further the number gets from zero, the stronger the correlation between the two variables.
Experimental Design (Research Design)
Keywords: CAUSE-AND-EFFECT RELATIONSHIPS can be detected by MANIPULATING an INDEPENDENT VARIABLE to see how it affects a DEPENDENT VARIABLE.
Permits inferences about cause and effect because researchers use an evenhanded procedure to assign people to two or more treatment conditions. The independent variable is the one the investigator expects to cause changes in another variable.
The dependent variable is the one the investigator expects to be influenced by the independent variable.
Cause-and-effect relationships can be detected because the researcher directly controls or manipulates changes in the independent variable by exposing participants to the treatment conditions. Then the researcher compares their performance on measures of the dependent variable.
Independent Variable
Keywords: Researchers manipulate this variable to CREATE AN EFFECT in the DEPENDENT VARIABLE
The independent variable is the one the investigator expects to cause changes in another variable.
The dependent variable is the one the investigator expects to be influenced by the independent variable.
Cause-and-effect relationships can be detected because the researcher directly controls or manipulates changes in the independent variable by exposing participants to the treatment conditions. Then the researcher compares their performance on measures of the dependent variable.
Dependent Variable
Keywords: This is the variable that CHANGES (the EFFECT) when influenced by changes to the Independent Variable
The independent variable is the one the investigator expects to cause changes in another variable. The dependent variable is the one the investigator expects to be influenced by the indepen-dent variable. Cause-and-effect relationships can be detected because the researcher directly controls or manipulates changes in the independent variable by exposing participants to the treat-ment conditions. Then the researcher compares their perfor-mance on measures of the dependent variable.
Random Assignment
Keywords: To PREVENT BIAS
…in selecting the pool of experimental subjects, subjects are chosen by random, by drawing numbers or flipping a coin, etc.
Longitudinal (Developmental Research Design)
Keywords: Studies SAME PEOPLE, DIFFERENT AGES
The investigator studies the same group of participants repeatedly at different ages.
Strength: Permits the study of common patterns and individual differences in development and relationships between early and later events and behaviors in the same individuals. Weakness: Age-related changes may be distorted because of participant dropout, practice effects, and cohort effects.
Cross-sectional (Developmental Research Design)
Keywords: Studies DIFFERENT PEOPLE of DIFFERENT AGES at the SAME TIME
The investigator studies groups of participants differing in age at the same point in time. Strength: More efficient than the longitudinal design. Not plagued by such problems as participant dropout and practice effects. Weakness: Does not permit study of individual developmental trends. Age differences may be distorted because of cohort effects (when groups of people are born at the same time and are affected by the situation during that period, like war, famine, etc.).
Sequential (Developmental Research Design)
Keywords: COMBINATION of CROSS-SECTIONAL and LONGITUDINAL
The investigator conducts several similar cross-sectional or longitudinal studies (called sequences). These might study participants over the same ages but in different years, or they might study participants over different ages but during the same years.
Strength: When the design includes longitudinal sequences, permits both longitudinal and cross-sectional comparisons. Also reveals cohort effects. Permits tracking of age-related changes more efficiently than the longitudinal design.
Weakness: May have the same problems as longitudinal and cross-sectional strategies, but the design itself helps identify difficulties.
Cohort Effect
Keywords: Groups BORN AT THE SAME TIME share similar experience
Individuals born in the same time period are influenced by a particular set of historical and cultural conditions (War, Famine, 80s music, etc.). Results based on one cohort may not apply to people developing at other times.
