Chapter 1 -The Nature of Child Development Flashcards
five areas in which children’s lives need to be improved
health and well-being, parenting,
education, and
sociocultural contexts
Diversity
Biological Processes
Biological processes produce changes in an individual’s body. Genes inherited from parents, the development of the brain, height and weight gains, acquisi-tion of motor skills, and the hormonal changes of puberty
Cognitive Processes
Cognitive processes refer to changes in an individual’s thought, intelligence, and language.
Socioemotional Processes
Socioemotional processes involve changes in an individual’s relationships with other people, changes in emotions, and changes in personality. A
5 Periods of development
Prenatal period - Before birth
Infancy - after birth till 18-14 m
Early childhood - 24 m to 5/6yr
Middle & late childhood - 6-11Y
Adolescence -10/12-18/19
prenatal period
The time from conception to birth
infancy
The developmental period that extends from birth to about 18 to 24 months.
early childhood
The developmental period that extends from the end of infancy to about 5 or 6 years of age, sometimes called the preschool years.
middle and late childhood
The developmental period that extends from about 6 to 11 years of age, sometimes called the elementary school years.
adolescence
The developmental period of transition from childhood to early adulthood, entered at approximately 10 to 12 years of age and ending at 18 or 19 years of age.
cohort effects
Effects due to a person’s time of birth, era, or generation but not to actual age.
Millennials
The generation born after 1980, the first to come of age and enter emerging adulthood in the new millennium
Two characteristics of Millennials stand out:
(1) their ethnic diversity, and (2) their connection to technology
3 ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT
Nature Vs Nurture
Continuity Vs. Discontinuity
Early Vs Later Experiences
nature-nurture issue
Debate about whether development is primarily influenced by nature or nurture. The “nature” proponents claim biological inheritance is the most important influence on development; the “nurture” proponents claim that environmental experiences are the most influential factors.
continuity-discontinuity issue
Question about whether development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity)
early-later experience issue
Controversy regarding the degree to which early experiences (especially during infancy) or later experiences are the key determinants of children’s development.
4 Stages of scientific method
(1) conceptualize a process or problem to be studied, (2) collect research information (data), (3) analyze data, and (4) draw conclusions
theory
is an interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to explain and to make predictions.
hypothesis
a specific, testable assumption or prediction.
5 Theories of Childhood Development
Psychoanalytical
Cognitive
Behavioural & Social Cognitive
Ethological
Ecological
Key Points of Psychoanalytic Theories
- believes that development is mostly unconscious
- Behaviour is just a surface characteristic and symbolic meanings of behaviour must be studied
- Early development with parents shape development
Freud’s Theory Key Points - Psychoanalytical Theory
- 5 stages of development -
Oral up to 1.5 yr, Ana 1.5-3 Yrs, Phallic 3-6 Yrs, Latency 6-Puberty, Genital stage - Puberty onward - Adult’s personality depends how one resolves conflict in each of above stages
Primary motive for human behaviour is sexual in nature
Early experiences important
Ericson’s 8 Stages of Development
Trust versus mistrust - 1yr
Autonomy versus shame and doubt - 1-3 yr
Initiative versus guilt, 3-6 yr
Industry versus inferiority 6-Pub
Identity versus identity confusion 10-20yrs
Intimacy versus isolation
Generativity versus 20-30 yrs
stagnation
Generativity versus
stagnation 40-50s
Integrity versus despair - 60s
4 Strategies for parenting, educating and interacting based on Ericson Theory
- Nurture infants and develop their trust, then encourage and monitor toddlers’ autonomy
- Encourage initiatives
- Promote Industry in school
- Stimulate identity exploration
behaviorism,
belief that we can study scientifically only what can be directly observed and measured that we can study scientifically only what can be directly observed and measured
behavioral tradition belief
Out of the behavioral tradition grew the belief that development is observable behavior that can be learned through experience with the environment
classical conditioning
neutral stimulus (in our example, hearing a bell ring) acquires the ability to produce a response originally produced by another stimulus (in our example, tasting food).
Social cognitive theory principle
holds that behavior, environment, and cognition are the key factors in development.
Ethological Theory
Ethology stresses that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, is tied to evolution, and is characterized by critical or sensitive periods
eclectic theoretical orientation,
selecting from each theory whatever is considered its best features.
laboratory,
a controlled setting from which many of the complex factors of the “real world” have been removed.
drawbacks of laboratory Experiments
- Participants are always aware of the experiment
- Participants can behave unnaturally
-Participants may not represent groups of all background - People can be intimidated by laboratory settings
-Some developmental aspects can not be observed in labs
Advantages of naturalistic observations
- Observation can be done in Real world settings
- No need to manipulate or control the situation
- Ideal for observing child behaviour
Methods of data collection
1- Observation (Laboratory or Naturalistic)
2 - Surveys and interviews
3 - Standardized tests -(IQ)
4 - Case studies
5 - Physiological measures
Types of Research Designs
1-Descriptive
2-corelational
3-Experimental
Descriptive Research
Aims to observe and record behaviour, however can not prove any causal relationship -what causes a phenomenon
Correlational Research
goal is to describe the strength of the relationship between two or more events or characteristics.
The more strongly the two events are correlated, the more eff ectively we can predict one event from the other
correlation coefficient,
a number based on a statistical analysis that is used to
describe the degree of association between two variables.
experiment
carefully regulated procedure in which one or more factors believed to influence the behavior being studied are manip-ulated while all other factors are held constant.
cross-sectional approach
research strategy in which individuals of diff erent ages are compared at one time
Example of cross-sectional approach
group of 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds, and 11-year-olds are studies for their IQ
4 Important Issues in Research
1- Informed consent
2- Confidentiality
3-Deception
4-Debriefing
Ethnic gloss
using an ethnic label such as African American or Latino in a superficial way that portrays an ethnic group as being more homogeneous than it really is
Three key processes of development
biological, cognitive, and socioemotional.
