Chapter 1. Flashcards
Changes in developmental psychology
focus on lifespan perspective
important changes occur during
every period of development,
including adulthood.
Developement is
- lifelong
- plastic
- multidimensional
Multidirectional
growth, maintenance, regulation
Lifespan development as contextual (3 factors)
- Normative age-graded influences: influences that are similar for individuals in a particular age group.
- Normative history-graded influences: influences that are common to people of a particular generation because of historical circumstances.
- Nonnormative, or random, individual events: unusual occurrences that have a major impact on an individual’s life, and impact different individual’s in different ways. EG
What factors/influences effect
resilience?
Poverty
Physical abuse
Maternal factors
ACEs
Protective factors and vulnerabilities
Vulnerabilities and protective
factors interact with the child’s environment
All individuals possess them
The same environment can have quite different effects, depending on the qualities the child brings to the interaction
Vulnerabilities
a variety of things, such as:
* a tendency towards alcoholism
* irritability
* different physical abnormalities
Protective factors
- high intelligence
- good physical condition
- Easy temperament
- attractive
- funny
Continuity vs Discontinuity
The debate about the extent
to which development
involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity), or distinct stages (discontinuity). (trappa vs. streck)
A full evaluation of age requires consideration of
(How should we understand age?)
- Chronological
- Biological
- Psychological
- social
Normal aging
describes most individuals, with psychological functioning, peaking early middle age
Pathological aging
describes individuals with above average decline as they age, developing a condition leading to mild cognitive impairment or chronic disease that impairs daily functioning
Successful /healthy aging
Successful /healthy aging
life span
the upper boundary of human lifespan is 122-150 years
People are living longer in part due to better:
*sanitation,
*nutrition, and
*medicine.
Currently, for the first time in history, there are more people are
over 60 than under 18.
Life expectancy
The average number of years that a person born in a particular year can expect to live.
The well-being of older adults, with
escalating health care costs and the need for access to adequate health care, is an important social policy issue
Who are the important early pioneers?
Charles Darwin
G. Stanley Hall -
Hall published the first scientific study of child development: “The Contents of Children’s Minds on Entering School”. He Wanted Developmentalists to identify norms.
* norms: average ages at which
developmental milestones are reached
Arnold Gesell
Received one of first two PhDs in Developmental Psychology awarded in the US.
Focused on maturation: the gradual unfolding of a genetically programmed sequential pattern of change.
* For example, walking - once children reach a certain age (do you know what age it is?) they begin to walk, without being taught.
Jean Piaget
Which famous scientist conducted baby biographies?
Charles Darwin
What two famous female psychologists helped to found the CPA?
Mary Ainsworth and her colleague Mary Wright, were involved in the development of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA).
Mary Ainsworth’s work on
attachment continues to inspire new
ways of understanding infant-
caregiver interactions
What are the defining characteristics of psychoanalytic theories of development? Who are the two famous psychologists associated with the psychoanalytic view of development?
Focus on the importance of the emotional quality of the child’s earliest relationship with caregivers and describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily colored by emotion.
Behavior is a surface characteristic, and the symbolic workings of the mind have to be analyzed to understand behavior.
Provide concepts—such as the unconscious, the ego, and identity that are part of everyday language, as well as psychoanalytic theory.
Freud and Erikson
Who is the founder of cognitive development? What is a major difference between how Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky frame cognitive
development? What is underlying assumption of an information-
processing view of cognition?
Jean Piaget - the founder of cognitive psychology
* Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development. Children are active thinkers.
Lev Vygotsky: social-constructivist view of development
* Information Processing theories
Vygotsky believed that children’s minds grow through interaction with the social environment: parents, teachers, and older children who can provide invaluable guidance. It is by collaborative dialogue that children learn
Freud
Through his work with patients, Freud became
convinced that their problems were the result of
experiences early in life.
Erikson
Psychosocial theory.
According to Erik Erikson, the primary motivation for behavior is social in nature.
Personality and developmental change occurs throughout the life span.
Both early and later experiences are importan
Erikson’s psychosocial theory: includes eight stages of human development, each representing a crisis that must be resolved.
- Trust versus mistrust: first year of infancy.
- Autonomy versus shame and doubt: 1 to 3 years.
- Initiative versus guilt: 3 to 5 years.
- Industry versus inferiority: 6 years to puberty.
etc.
Children’s learning of new cognitive
skills is guided by an adult or a more
skilled child who structures the child’s
learning experience—a process called
scaffolding
The difference is learning through scaffolding or trough putting information in schemes.
zone of proximal development (vygotsky)
The term zone of proximal development signifies tasks that are too hard for the child to do alone, but that he can manage with guidance.
How does BF Skinner explain development?
Development consists of the pattern of behavioral changes brought about by rewards and punishments.
Operant Conditioning: a form of learning in which responses come to be controlled by their consequences.
organisms tend to repeat behaviour (responses) that are followed by favorable consequences.
- Reinforcement happens when a
behaviour is repeated because of
the consequence that followed it
What does Albert Bandura’s social-cognitive perspective say about development?
Bandura states that learning does not always require reinforcement; sometimes we learn from watching others.
This is called observational
learning or modelling.
Bandura’s social cognitive theory:
Emphasizes behavior, environment, and cognition as the key factors in development.
Relations between behavior, person/cognitive, and environmental factors are reciprocal.
Using forethought, individuals guide and motivate themselves by creating action plans, formulating goals, and visualizing positive outcomes of their actions.
