Chapter 1: What is Developmental Psychology? Flashcards
Define Developmental Psychology
the scientific study of recurrent psychological changes across the human lifespan
Development starts when…
the genome is complete
What are normative and idiosyncratic changes?
Normative changes are the same across individuals. Idiosyncratic changes are specific to an individual.
What is a gamete?
One of two sex cells, egg or sperm, that fuse together during fertilization to form a zygote. Each gamete contains half of the future offspring’s complete genome.
Three reasons to study the development of children?
- It provides insight to our universal human nature (cross cultural comparisons)
- Adult psychological processes better understood (we infer which rules children follow when they make errors)
- Educators, policymakers and society members want to know how their interactions with children impact their development
The Early History of Developmental Psychology…
Plato, and Rousseau (maturation rather than experience) are nativists (innate knowledge).
Aristotle and Locke are empiricists (blank slate)
Early Modern Developmental Psychology
Watson- the father of behaviourism. A strong empiricist. All behaviours can be controlled by conditioning and reinforcement.
Piaget- created field of cognitive development. A stage theorist. Introduced the clinical method (a semi-structured interview).
Evolutionary psychology: an approach that holds being well informed about evolution and the EEA will aid us in our understanding of the function and design of the human mind.
Define adaptations
Adaptations are traits designed and preserved by the process of NS because they conferred a fitness related advantage in the environment in which they evolved.
3 current issues
- continuity and discontinuity (are kids bigger/stronger/faster or are they smarter because of experience and a change in thinking or the effects of puberty?)
- plasticity and stability (whether traits remain stable across life or change, and among those that change, is it due to environmental cues or maturation?)
- normative development and individual differences (Some traits follow species-typical development while some depend on experience)
Continuity can best be described in _____ terms and discontinuity can best be described in _____ terms.
quantitative; qualitative
5 organizing themes
interactionism, functionality, instinct blindness, empirical evidence, the EEA
Define EEA
The EEA is the environment of evolutionary adaptedness, the condition under which our ancestors lived and to which our morphological and psychological features are adapted.
The aspect of the EEA that is relevant depends on…
the psychological process you wish to study.
We aren’t afraid of fast food and fast cars because
these dangers were not present in the EEA, like snakes and heights, and so we did not evolve fear mechanisms specific to them.
Define instinct blindness
our inability to appreciate the complexity of our mental processes because they seem so automatic
