Chapter One Flashcards
5 areas to improve life of children
Health&well being, parenting, education, sociocultural context, diversity
Sources of resilience
Individual - good intellectual function , sociable, easy going, faith
Family- close relationships to caring parent figures , authoritative: warmth, structure, high expectations
Extra familiar - bonds to caring adults outside the family, connection to positive organizations
Biological process of development
Changed in individuals body(weight, brain, motor skills, hormonal changes)
Cognitive process of development
Changes in thinking intelligence and language skills
Socioemotional processes of development
Changes in an individuals interpersonal relationships, emotions and personality
What is Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory
- Microsystem: relations between child and immediate environment
- Mesosystem: connections among immediate settings
- Exosystem: social settings that affect but do not contain the child
- Macrosystem: values, laws, customs, resources of culture
- Chronosystem: dynamic, ever-changing nature of person’s environment
Freud’s theory of Development included:
Believed in the importance of early experience
* Five stages of psychosexual development
Oral stage
Anal stage
Phallic stage
Latency stage
Genital stage
who Discovered Classical Conditioning?
Pavlov (Pavlov’s Dog)
What is Piagets theory of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor Stage: Birth to 2 years
Preoperational Stage: 2 to 7 years
Concrete Operational Stage: 7 to 11 years
Formal Operational Stage: 11 years and older
Piaget’s theory emphasizes the idea that children actively construct their understanding of the world through interaction with their environment and that cognitive development involves qualitative shifts in thinking as individuals progress through these stages.
What is Erik Erickson’s Theory of psychosocial Development?
Psychosocial stages
According to Erikson, individuals go through a series of psychosocial stages, and at each stage, there is a specific developmental task or crisis that must be successfully navigated for healthy psychological development. The psychosocial stages cover the entire lifespan, from infancy to old age, and each stage is associated with a particular psychosocial challenge that individuals must resolve to move on to the next stage of development.
- Development is motivated by our social needs
- Life-span development
What is Vygotsky’s Theory of socioculture development
Growth depends on cultural and social interaction
* Help needed from more advanced peers and adults
emphasized the role of social and cultural factors in cognitive development. According to his theory, individuals learn and develop through their interactions with more knowledgeable peers and adults, who provide support and guidance. Vygotsky introduced the concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD), which is the difference between what a learner can do independently and what they can do with assistance. He believed that the most effective learning occurs within this zone, with the help of more knowledgeable individuals scaffolding the learner’s understanding and skills.
Describe Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
operant conditioning, which he also referred to as “radical behaviorism,” focused on how behavior is shaped by its consequences. In operant conditioning, behavior is strengthened or weakened based on the consequences that follow it. Skinner’s research involved experiments with animals, particularly pigeons and rats, to investigate the principles of operant conditioning.
Turing & Information Processing
his work on computation and the concept of a Turing machine laid the groundwork for viewing the mind as a system that processes information in a manner analogous to a computer.
Describe Bandura’s Work
The addition of social cognition to operant conditioning is associated with the work of Albert Bandura, a Canadian-American psychologist. Bandura’s social cognitive theory incorporates the role of observational learning, imitation, and modeling in the acquisition and modification of behavior. While operant conditioning traditionally focuses on the consequences of an individual’s actions, Bandura expanded this perspective by highlighting the importance of social factors, such as observing others and the cognitive processes involved in learning from those observations. His famous Bobo doll experiments demonstrated how children learn aggressive behaviors through observation and imitation of adults.
Ages of Freud’s Stages
Oral Stage: Birth to 1.5 years - During this stage, the primary focus is on oral pleasures, such as sucking and tasting.
Anal Stage: 1.5 to 3 years - The focus during this stage is on bowel and bladder elimination, and children begin to experience the pleasure of controlling these bodily functions.
Phallic Stage: 3 to 6 years - This stage centers on the genitals, and children become more aware of their bodies and develop unconscious sexual feelings, often directed toward the opposite-sex parent (Oedipus complex or Electra complex).
Latency Stage: 6 years to puberty - During this stage, sexual feelings are largely suppressed, and children focus on developing social and intellectual skills.
Genital Stage: Puberty and beyond - The final stage is marked by the reawakening of sexual interests and the development of mature sexual relationships.
Three important cognitive theories are:
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development: Proposed by Jean Piaget, this theory focuses on the stages of cognitive development in children. Piaget identified distinct stages, including the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages, each characterized by different cognitive abilities and ways of thinking.
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory: Lev Vygotsky’s theory emphasizes the role of social and cultural factors in cognitive development. He introduced the concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD), which highlights the range of tasks that a learner can perform with assistance. Vygotsky believed that social interaction and cultural context play a crucial role in shaping cognitive abilities.
Information Processing Theory: This theory views the mind as a processor of information, akin to a computer. It focuses on how individuals acquire, store, process, and retrieve information. This approach examines cognitive processes such as attention, memory, and problem-solving, considering them as processes similar to those in a computer system. Cognitive psychologists like George Miller and Ulric Neisser contributed to the development of this theory.
Describe Cross-sectional approach
Observe people of different ages (or cohorts) at one point in time
Cross-sectional studies are useful for providing a snapshot of a population at a particular point in time and for identifying patterns or differences among age groups. However, because this design does not involve following individuals over time, it does not provide information about how variables change within individuals as they age (longitudinal changes).
Describe Longitudinal Approach
where researchers follow the same individuals or cohorts over an extended period to investigate changes and developments over time.
What is a cohort Effect
Effects due to a person’s time of birth, era or generation but not to actual age
Millenials
after 1980, ethnic diversity & connected to technology
What is nature vs nurture?
Nature refers to an individual’s biological inheritance;
nurture to its environmental experiences.
According to nature proponents - a range of environments can be vast but evolutionary & genetic foundations produce commonalities in growth and development. Extreme environments can stunt development.
Nurture proponents emphasize the importance of nurture and environmental experiences to development. including nutrition, medical care, drugs, physical accidents, social environments, family, peers, media and culture. e.g a child’s diet effects how tall they grown and how effectively a child can think.
What is the continuity -discontinuity issue?
It focuses on the exten to which development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity).
those who emphasize nurture, usually describe development as a gradual continuous process (like seedlings into an oak);
those who emphasize nature describe development as series of distinct stages - like a caterpillar to a butterfly.
What is Early-Later Experience
focuses on the degree to which early experiences (especially in infancy) or later experiences are the key determinants of a child’s development.
If an infant has harmful circumstances, can those be overcome later by positive ones? Or are they so critical they can’t be overridden later by a better environment.
What are psychoanalytic Theories?
Theories that describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily coloured by emotion. Behaviour is merely a surface characteristic, and the symbolic workings of the mind have to be analyzed to understand behaviour.
What are Erikson’s 8 stages of cognitive development?
- Trust vs Mistrust (0-1)
- Autonomy vs Shame & Doubt (1-3 years)
- Initiative vs guilt (3-5 years)
- Industry vs Inferiority (6-11 years)
- identity vs identity confusion (10-20 years)
- Intimacy vs isolation (20’s & 30’s)
- Generativity vs stagnation (40’s & 50’s)
- Integrity vs despair (60’s onward)
Contribution & Criticism of psychoanalytic Theories:
Contribution: emphasis on developmental framework, family relationships, unconscious aspects of the mind.
Criticisms: lack of scientific support, too much emphasis on sexual underpinnings (Freud), too much credit given to unconscious mind, image of children that is too negative (Freud)
What are the psychoanalytic Theories?
Freud’s 5 stages & Erikson’s 8 stages
What is social Cognitive Theory?
The view of psychologists who emphasize behaviour, environment, and cognition as the key factors in development
Name Three Behavioural approaches
1) Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning
2) Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
3) Bandura’s Social cognitive Theory
Describe Pavlov’s work
Ivan Pavlov, saw dogs salivate when they taste food. He noticed they salivate in response to various sights and sounds before eating. Pavlov discovered “classical conditioning” - a neutral stimulus(bell), acquires the ability to produce a response originally produced by another stimulus (food)
What is ethology?
Stresses that behaviour is strongly influence by biology, is tied to evolution and is characterized by critical or sensitive periods - specific time frames during which the presence or absence of certain experiences has a long-lasting influence in individuals
What zoologist brought ethology to prominence and how?
Konrand Lorenz, studying the greylag goose. The incubator geese followed him, not the mother.
What is ecological theory?
Environmental systems theory that focuses on 5 environmental systems.
microsystems
mesosystems
exosystems
macrosystems
chronosystem
What is eclectic theoretical orientation?
an orientation that does not follow any one theoretical approach but selects from each theory whatever is considered its best aspects
Name each theory and how it relates to Nature vs Nurture:
Psychoanalytic (Freud & Erikson) : biological determinism interacting with early family experiences ; Erikson’s more balance biological/cultural persepctive
Cognitive: Piaget’s emphasis on interaction and adaptation, environment provides the setting for cognitive structures to develop; Vygotsky’s theory involves interaction of nature vs nurture with strong emphasis on culture; information processing approach has not addressed this extensively, but emphasizes biologcal/environmental
Behavioural/Social Cognitive: Environment viewed as MAIN influence on development
Ethological: Strong Biological View
Ecological: Strong environmental view
Name each theory and how it relates to early-later experience
Psychoanalytic: Early experiences in the family are very important
Cognitive: Childhood experiences are important influences
Behavioural & Social Cognitive: Experiences important at all points of development
Ethological: Early experience is important, which can contribute to change early in development ; after early critical or sensitive period has passed stability is likely to occur
Ecological: Experiences involved the five environmental systems are important at all points in development
Name each theory and how it relates to continuity-discontinuity
Psychoanalytic: Emphasis on discontinuity between stages
Cognitive: Discontinuity between stages in Piaget’s theory; no stages in Vygotsky’s theory or the information processing
Behavioural & social cognitive: Continuity with no stages
Ethological: Discontinuity because of early critical or sensitive period; no stages
Ecological: No stages but little attention to the issue
Name Research Methods for data collection
1) Observation
2) Survey & Interview
3) Standardized Test
4) Case Study
5) Physiological Measures
Drawbacks of laboratory research?
- Participants know they are being studied
*Unnatural, therefore subject can behave unnaturally
- Not fair representation (who is likely to come to be studied)
- some children’s development difficult/impossible to study in laboratory
- some types of stress may be unethical
Surveys & Interviews
sometimes best & quickest way to get information
Questions need to be clear and unbiased
Covers a wide range of topics
Social desirability problem
Standardized Test
uniform procedure for administration and scoring.
3 weaknesses: 1) do not always predict behaviour in non-test situations
2) based on the belief a person’s behaviour is consistent (i.e. test anxiety)
3)may not be culturally sensitive
Case Study
in depth look at a single individual.
can provide indepth info about fears, hopes, fantasies, trauma, upbringing, family, health, behaviour
Not easy to generalize
Physiological Measures
ie. puberty - blood levels of certain hormones increase. ; fmri - brain activity
Descriptive Research
Research that involved observing and recording behaviour
Correlational Research
the goal is to describe the strength of the relationship between 2 or more coefficients
Experimental Research
carefully regulated procedure in which one ore more of the factors believe to influence the behaviour being studied are manipulated while all other factors are held constant
cross-sectional approach
research strategy in which individuals of a different ages are compare at the same point in time. eg 5, 8 and 11 year olds at one time
Longitudinal Approach
A research strategy in which the same individuals are studied over a period of time, usually several years
Tenets of ethical Research
1) informed consent
2) Confidentiality
3) Debriefing
4) Deception (psychologist must ensure deception will not harm the participants, and will be told the whole nature of the study in debrief
5) guard against bias
What are the steps of research
1) conceptualize the problem
2) Collect data
3) Draw conclusions
4) revise theory
