development Flashcards
what are the 4 Ps associated with the change in behaviour as a function of time or age
Profound: changes in individual entire outlook on the world (attachment formation)
Permanent: unlike learning, developmental changes are not easily reversed
Progressive: developmental changes bring about improvement
Pervasive: affects all areas of life -> can’t look only at one developmental domain
What is developmental psychology
focus on how mind and behaviour change and why (causal explanations)
give empirical reasons why we study development
- comparative: understanding our relationship to other animals
- role of early experience in development: child as father to the man (Rousseau)
give philosophical reasons to why we study development
What do humans bring into the world
What does this tell us about what it means to be human?
How can you get something from nothing? I.e. How can consciousness develop from inanimate matter?
give practical reasons why we study development
Research findings can inform
Advice given to parents
Interventions for a range of developmental disorders and difficulties
Teaching and educational practice and policy
give 5 issues in developmental psychology
Nature and nurture
The passive and active child
Continuities and discontinuities
Longitudinal stability and influence
Individual differences
NPCLI
Describe how ‘nature and nurture’ are involved in development
Extreme nativist: Gessell
Extreme empiricism: Watson
- innate potential for development
- learning in order to develop
- modern position says both contribute to development
describe how ‘continuities and discontinuities’ contribute to development
Freud’s stage theory of psychosexual development (discontinuous)
Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive development (discontinuous)
Bandura learning theory (continuous)
How does the concept of ‘the passive and active child’ contribute to development?
Are children passive participants in development, primarily moulded by experience?
Or do they have an active role to play in exploring the world constructing concepts example Piaget’s theory
How does the concept of ‘longitudinal stability and influence’ contribute to development
Do certain developmental constructs remain stable over time?
Are some developmental constructs particularly important in predicting subsequent development? Example attachment
How do individual differences contribute to development
Concern is both with what is shared by all humans and with what varies between individuals
Psychologist try to explain what causes these individual differences
Shift from asking what age a particular task is passed, to what accounts for individual differences in children the same age
what should we look for when studying development
- methodological problems
- the ‘data’ problem
- establishing causal relationship
- choosing the ‘right’ age
