Chapter 1 - History, Theory, Research Strategies Flashcards
Child Development
An area of study devoted to understanding constancy and change from conception through adolescence
Developmental Science
Interdisciplinary field that includes all changes we experience throughout lifespan. Development is often divided into three broad domains: Physical, Cognitive, and Emotional/Social
Periods of development
- Prenatal, conception to birth
- Infancy and toddlerhood, birth - 2 years
- Early childhood, 2-6 years
- Middle childhood, 6 - 11 years
- Adolescence, 11 - 18 years
(- Emerging adulthood, 18 - mid/late twenties)
Theory
An orderly, integrated set of statements that describes, explains, and predicts behavior. continued existence relies on scientific verification.
Continuous Development
A process regarding development that describes it as gradually adding more of the same types of skills that were there to begin with. (visually think of it as an arc instead of steps)
Discontinuous Development
A process regarding development that describes it as taking place in stages, understanding and responding to the world at specific times. (visually think of it as steps instead of an arc)
States
Qualitative changes in thinking, feeling, and behaving that characterize specific periods of development .
Contexts
Unique combinations of personal and environmental circumstances that can result in different paths of change.
Nature
The hereditary information we receive from our parents at the moment of conception
Nurture
The complex forces of the physical and social world that influence our biological makeup and psychological experiences before and after birth.
Nature-nurture controversy
Are genetic or environmental factors more important in influencing development?
Plasticity
Open to change in response to influential experiences. Theorists view development as having substantial plasticity.
Resilience
The ability to adapt effectively in the face of threats to development
John Locke
British philosopher who was a forerunner for behaviorism. He regarded development as continuous, and believed in the power of nurture our nature; saw development as having high plasticity. believed in the power of adult guidance.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
French philosopher who called children “noble savages”, and believed they needed less adult guidance and more self-training. Had a child-centered philosophy in which adults ought to be receptive to the needs of the child. He believed in stages of development, as well maturation.
Maturation
Refers to a genetically determined, naturally unfolding course of growth.
Charles Darwin
British naturalist who’s theory of evolution, natural selection, and survival of the fittest caused other scientists and researchers to study children with those growth patterns in mind.
Normative approach
Suggested by G. Stanley Hall (American psychologist) and his student Arnold Gesell, both inspired by Darwin’s theories. This approach measures behaviors that are taken on large numbers of individuals and age-related averages are compared to represent typical development.
Psychoanalytic perspective
Suggests that children 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.
Sigmund Freud
Viennese physician, proposed psychosexual theory.
Psychosexual Theory
Emphasizes that how parents manage their child’s sexual and aggressive drives in the first few years is crucial for healthy personality development.
id - largest portion of the mind and the source of basic needs and desires
ego - conscious, rational part of personality, redirects id’s impulses
superego - the conscience, develops as parents insist children confirm to societal norms.
Erik Erikson
A follower of Freud who expanded on his ideas to create the psychosocial theory. Recognized the lifespan nature of development.
Psychosocial theory
In which Erikson emphasized 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.
Behaviorism
Theory that states that directly observable events - stimuli and responses - are the appropriate focus of study. Championed by John Watson, who was inspired by Ivan Pavlov. Also associated with B.F. Skinner
Social learning theory
Devised by Albert Bandura, emphasizes modeling, also known as imitation or observational learning, as a powerful source of development. This theory stresses the importance of cognition, calling it a social-cognitive approach.
Applied behavior analysis
Consists of observations of relationships between behavior and 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.
Criticisms of social learning theory/behaviorism
Both theories offer too narrow a view of important environmental influences, which extend beyond immediate reinforcement, punishment, and modeled behaviors to children’s rich physical and social worlds.
Jean Piaget
Swiss cognitive theorist, came up with cognitive-developmental theory
Cognitive-developmental theory
According to this theory, children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world.
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. Children revise their ideas as they mature to achieve equilibrium between internal structures and information they encounter in their worlds.
Piagets stages
Sensorimotor (birth-2)
Preoperational (2-7)
Concrete operational (7-11)
Formal operational (11 onward)
Information processing Theory
Suggests that the human mind might also be viewed as a symbol-manipulating system through which information flows - similar to a computer hardware system.
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Brings together researchers from psychology, biology, neuroscience, and medicine to study the relationship between changes in the brain and the developing child’s cognitive processing and behavior patterns.
Developmental social neuroscience
Devoted to studying the relationship between changes in the brain and emotional and social development.
Ethology
Focuses on the adaptive, or survival, value of behavior and its evolutionary history. Notes can be traced to Darwin
Critical period
A limited time span during which the child is biological prepared to acquire certain adaptive behaviors but needs the support of an appropriately stimulating environment.
Sensitive period
A time that is biologically optimal for certain capacities to emerge because the individual is especially responsive to environmental influences. However, its boundaries are less well-defined than are those of the critical period. Development can occur later, but it is harder to induce.
John Bowlby
British psychoanalyst who applied ethological theory to understanding the human infant-caregiver relationship.
Evolutionary developmental psychology
Seeks to understand the adaptive value of species-wide cognitive, emotional, and social competencies as those competencies change with age. aims to understand the entire person-environement system.
Sociocultural theory
Focuses on how culture - the values, beliefs, systems 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 the ways of thinking and behaving that make up a community culture.
Lev Vygotsky
Russian psychologist who played a major role in the trend of viewing the relationship of culturally specific beliefs and practices to development. Viewed cognitive development as a socially mediated process, where children depend on adults for guidance.
Ecological systems theory
Views the child as developing within a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels of the surrounding environment. Microsystem, mesosystem, exostystem, macrosystem.
Urie Bronfenbrenner
Championed ecological systems theory, characterized his perspective as a bioecological model.
Microsystem
Innermost level of the environment, consists of activities and interaction patterns in the child’s immediate surroundings, remembering that all relationships are bidirectional. Adults affect children behavior, but children behavior also affects adults. Third parties also affect any 2-person relationship
Mesosystem
The second level of Bronfebrenner’s model, encompasses the connections between Microsystems, such as home, school, neighborhood, and child care center.
Exosystem
Consists of social settings that do not contain children but that nevertheless affect children’s experiences in immediate settings.
Macrosystem
The outermost level of Bronfenbrenner’s model, consists of cultural values, laws, customs, and resources. The priority that that macrosystem gives to children needs affects the support they receive at inner levels of the environment.
Chronosystem
(chrono = time); what Bronfenbrenner called the temporal dimension of his model. Life changes can be imposed on the child, or alternatively they can arise from within the child, since as children get older they select, modify, and create many of their own settings and experiences.
Dynamic Systems Perspective
The child’s mind, body, and physical and social worlds form an integrated system that guides mastery of their new skills. The system is dynamic, or constantly in motion. A change in any part of it - from brain growth to physical or social surroundings - disrupts the current organism-environment relationship. When this happens, the child actively reorganizes his or her behavior so the various components of the system work together again but in a more complex, effective way.
Structured observations
in which the investigator sets up a laboratory situation that evokes the behavior of interest so that every participant as an equal opportunity to display the response.
Clinical interview
A flexible, conversational style is used to probe for the participants point of view
Naturalistic observation
Going into the field or natural environment, and observing behavior of interest.
Structured interviews
includes tests and questionnaires, in which each participant is asked the same questions in the same way.
Clinical, or case study method
Brings together a wide range of information on one child, including interviews, observations, and sometimes test scores.
Ethnography
this kind of research is a descriptive, qualitative technique that is directed toward understanding a culture or a distinct social group through participant observation, as opposed to seeking to understand a single individual.
Correlational design
Researchers gather information on individuals, generally in natural life circumstances, and make no effort to alter their experiences. then they look at relationships between participants characteristics and their behavior or development.
Correlation coefficient
A number that describes how two measures, or variables, are associated with one another.
Experimental design
Permits inferences about cause and effect because researchers use an evenhanded procedure to assign people to two or more treatment conditions. The events and behaviors of interest are divided between two types: independent and dependent variables.
Independent variable
The one the investigator expects to cause change in another variable
Dependent variable
The one the investigator expects to be influenced by the independent variable.
Random assignment
When investigators use an unbiased procedure to assign participants to treatment conditions. This increases the changes that participants characteristics will be equally distributed across treatment groups.
Longitudinal design
When participants are studied repeatedly and changes are noted as they get older.
Cohort effects
Something studied in longitudinal design studies, examining the development of cohorts (children born at the same time, who are influenced by particular cultural and historical conditions). Results based on one cohort may not apply to children developing at other times in history.
Cross-sectional design
When groups of people differing in age are studied at the same point in time.
Sequential Designs
When investigators conduct several similarly cross-sectional or longitudinal studies (called sequences) at varying times.
Microgenetic design
Ad adaptation of the longitudinal approach, presents children with a novel task and follows their mastery over a series of closely spaced sessions. Within this microcosm of development, researches observe how change occurs.
