Child Development L1

Question 1

What’s important for clinical psychologists to know when trying to determine what is normal and abnormal?

Answer 1

The age of the client

Question 2

What is the definition of development?

Answer 2

The sequence of physical and psychological changes that human beings undergo as they grow older.

Question 3

What is the definition of developmental psychology?

Answer 3

The scientific study of age-related changes in

behaviour, thinking, emotion, and personality.

Question 4

Does development stop when we physically resemble adults?

Answer 4

No, after puberty has finished there is still a lot of psychological changes that occur throughout adulthood. We never stop developing.

Question 5

List the three big questions in developmental psychology….

Answer 5

• Continuity and Change
• Sources of Development
• Individual Differences

Question 6

What are we trying to find out about developmental psychology with the question involving continuity and change?

Answer 6

• Are we as human beings distinctive from other species?
• Is individual development continuous?
• Are there critical periods in development?

Question 7

What are we trying to find out about developmental psychology with the question involving sources of development?

Answer 7

• Nature versus Nurture debate
• In other words is it our genetics that shapes us or the environment
• Often study using identical twins which have been spilt to grow up in different families

Question 8

What are we trying to find out about developmental psychology with the question involving individual differences?

Answer 8

• What makes individuals different from each other?
• To what extent are individual characteristics stable over time? (e.g. if you are shy as a baby will you be shy as an adult?)

Question 9

Why is it important that we know if human beings develop differently from other species?

Answer 9

We need to know if we can generalize findings from animal studies to us.

Question 10

What are the two types of development? (provide examples)

Answer 10

• Discontinuous: Qualitative, there is a change
  (e. g. frog development, flowering of plants, development of walking to crawling to running)

-Continuous: Quantitative, gradual accumulation of small changes we can measure (e.g. vocab)

Question 11

What is a critical period? How is it different from a sensitive period?

Answer 11

• Critical period: Something has to happen at a certain time in order for development to proceed in a certain way (e.g. imprinting)
• Sensitive period: best to happen at certain time but a bit more flexible (e.g. language)

Question 12

What is epigenetics?

Answer 12

The idea of the environment and genes interacting

Question 13

What are the four ways you can collect data in developmental psychology?

Answer 13

• Self-Report
• Observation
• Experimental Methods
• Clinical Interview Methods

Question 14

What might self-reporting involve as a method to collect data?

Answer 14

• Ask the person directly or parents (if too young).
• Could be unreliable due to memory problems or hiding the truth due to embarrassment
• E.g. In hospitals use the happy face scale to measure pain of children.

Question 15

What might observations involve as a method to collect data?

Answer 15

• Going into the child’s environment (e.g. school) to see what is happening
• Collecting data by taking photos, counting how often a behaviour occurs etc.

Question 16

What might experimental methods involve as a method to collect data?

Answer 16

• Introduce change in order to measure what happens
• e.g. Rogue test (test of self-recognition) stick something on babies face. At some point in development instead of seeing it as something to laugh at in the mirror they will realize it is them and try to get it off.

Question 17

What might clinical interview methods involve as a method to collect data?

Answer 17

• Similar to self-reporting in that the client is telling you how they are feeling/what is going on
• However, a bit different because it is in person and you base your questions on their responses

Question 18

What are the two types of research design?

Answer 18

• Longitudinal Design: Follow the same group of people over time (e.g. Dunedin longitudinal study)
• Cross-Sectional Design: Used when you do not have a lot of time and money. Recruit some children in different age groups 2,4, 6, 8 months in order to see the changes that occur without having to wait in real time.