chapter 1 Flashcards
historical foundations, themes, methods
plato
- emphasized self-control and discipline
- believed in innate knowledge
aristotle
- more concerned with fitting child rearing to the needs of the individual child
- believed in knowledge coming from experience
john locke
-tabula rasa (blank slate)
- believed in growth of character is most important
- discipline before freedom
jean-jacque rousseau
- believed that parents and society should give children maximum freedom from the beginning
- freedom before discipline
industrial revolution
many children iim Europe and the US worked as poorly paid laborers with few, if any, legal protections
- hazardous situations
the earl of shaftesbury
- effort at social reform brought partial success
- legacy
- brought about the first child labor laws
darwin’s theory of evolution
inspired a number of scientists to propose that intensive study of children’s development might lead to important insights into human nature
enduring themes in child development
- nature and nurture
- the active child
- continuity / discontinuity
- mechanisms of change
- the sociocultural context
- individual differences
- research and children’s welfare
nature and nurture theme
how do they together shape development?
the active child theme
how do children shape their own development?
- selective attention
- mom = priority
- crib speech
- toys and fantasy play
continuity / discontinuity theme
in what ways is development continuous, and in what ways is it discontinuous ?
- jean piageet
- theory of cognitive development
continuous
the idea that changes with the age occur in gradually small increments (curve)
discontinuous
the idea that changes with age include occasional large shifts and steps (staircase)
mechanisms of change theme
how does change occur?
- neurotransmitters among brain cells
- milestone (what/when)
- mechanism / statistical learning (how)
- factor (how)
the sociocultural context theme
how does the sociocultural context influence development?
individual differences theme
how do children become so different from one another ?
- genetic differences
- differences in treatment by parents and others
- differences in reactions to similar experiences
- different choices of environments
research and children’s welfare theme
how can research promote children’s well-being?
- leads to practical benefits `
the scientific method
an approach to testing beliefs that involves choosing a question, formulating a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and drawing a conclusion
hypothesis
testable prediction of the presence of absence of phenomena or relations
4 steps to the scientific method
- choosing a question to be answered
- stems from an observation - formulate a hypothesis regarding that question
- develop a method for testing thee hypothesis
- use the resulting data to draw a conclusion regarding the hypothesis
interrater reliability
how much AGREEMENT there is in the observations of different raters who witness the same behaviors
test-retest reliability
examining performance of the same test, administered under the same conditions multiple times
internal validity
whether effects observed within experiments can be attributed with confidence to the factor of interest
external validity
ability to generalize research findings beyond the specifics of the study
types of interviews and questionnaires
structured interviews, questionnaire, clinical interviews
structure interviews
all participants are asked to answer to the same question
questionnaire
method to gather information from a large number of participants by presenting a uniform set of questions
clinical interview
questions are adjusted in accord with the answers the interviewee provides
naturalistic observation
watching behavior in real-world settings without truing to manipulate the situation
pros and cons of naturalistic observations
pros
- allows researchers to see the relevant behaviors without influencing those behaviors
cons
- might not see the behavior of interest and hard to know what caused a behavior
- if participants notice the observer, they may act differently
structured observation
presenting an identical situation to each participant and recording behaviors
pros and cons of structured observations
pros
- ensures all participants have the same experience/context
cons
- might be stages and not indicative of real behaviors
- study scale error
correlational designs
examines the extent to which two variables are associated
correlations explained
–> closer to -1 or 1 = strong correlation
–> variables move in the same direction = positive correlation
–> as one variable goes up, the other goes down = negative correlation
–> zero/constant line = no correlation
direction of causation problem
we don’t know which direction the variables are impacting each other –> scatterplot
third variables problem
there could be a third variable that affects the ones present
experimental designs
cause and effect
random assignment
anybody could be assigned to any of the conditions
variable manipulation
independent variable
- changing it in multiple settings to see if the dependent variable changes
research designs
cross sectional, longitudinal, micro genetic
cross sectional design
(quick) research design that examines people of different ages at a single point in time
- ex: collecting data from multiple different people of different ages
- COHORT EFFECT
cohort effect
effect observed in a sample of participants that results from individuals in the sample growing up at the same time
longitudinal design
research design that examines development in thee same group of people on multiple occurrences over time
- ex: minnesota twins study
- ATTRITION
attrition
participants dropping out of a study before it’s done
microgenetic
same participants are studied repeatedly over a short period of time
- studying change and development as its happening
