Developmental psychology 1 Flashcards
What is development psychology
The study of how we can change over our lifespans
Child development
Consistencies and changes in children’s abilities and development from birth to adolescence
When is adult development
Post-adolescence
The study of developmental psychology has applied relevance where?
Education, health, social care, child-rearing, etc.
what is Interdisciplinary inquiry?
Interdisciplinary inquiry is when developmental science draws together bio-behavioural, social and psychological disciplines
Domains of development
Physical, cognitive, social and emotional development
Physical development
Refers to changes in:
- Body size, proportions and appearance
- Functioning of body systems
- Perceptual and motor development
- Physical health
Cognitive development
Refers to changes in:
- Intellectual abilities, including attention, memory, academic and everyday knowledge
- Problem-solving
- Imagination and creativity
- Language
Social and emotional development
Refers to changes in:
- Understanding of self and others
- Social competence
- Emotion understanding and regulation
- Intimate relationships (parent-child, sibling, friendships)
- Moral reasoning and behaviour
Periods of child development (Piaget)
- Pre-natal: conception to birth
- Infancy and toddlerhood: birth to 2 years
- Middle childhood: 7-11 years old
- Adolescence: 11-18 years old
Main 3 questions for developmental psychology
- Normative development vs. individual differences
- Continuous development vs. discontinuous development
- Nature vs. nurture
Normative development
- Species-normal development changes over time
- Focus on similarities→ E.g. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
Individual differences
- Differences observed between children at a given age/time/place
- Focus on individual differences→ Temperament differences
Continuous
- Theories emphasising mechanisms of continuous change assume that development is cumulative.
- Development involves quantitative change
- E.g. Information processing theories
Discontinuous
- Theories incorporating ‘stages’ of development assume that development is discontinuous
- Development involves qualitative changes→ E.g. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
Common developmental curves
- Continuous increase
- Continuous decrease
- Stage like
Continuous increase
E.g.
- Height & weight
- Vocabulary size
- Memory capacity
Continuous decrease
E.g.
- Hours of sleep needed
- Learning a new language (e.g. Johnson & Newport, 1991)
- Late life decline in hearing
Stage-like
- Qualitative or discontinuous
- E.g.
- Cognitive development according to Piaget (1954)
- Moral development according to Kohlberg (1981)
Nature vs. Nurture
Nature = biological underpinnings of behaviour, ‘instincts’, innate behaviours/traits
- Genetic influences
Nurture = environment, culture, context, family influences
- Environmental influences
Nature vs. Nurture 2
- Can work at the level of normative development, as well as explaining individual differences
- Almost all psychologists believe that both nature and nurture are important, but different theorists may prioritise one over the other
Observational research (2 types)
Naturalistic
- In the ‘field’ or natural environment where behaviour happens
Structured
- Laboratory situations set up to evoke behaviour of interest
- All participants have an equal chance to display behaviour
Collecting systematic observations
Event sampling & Time sampling
Event sampling
Observer records all instances of a particular behaviour during a specific time period
Time sampling
Observer records whether certain behaviours occur during a sample of short time intervals
Limitations of observational research
Observer influence & Observer bias
Observer influence
- Participants may react in unnatural ways
- Can be minimised→ Observer familiar to children→ Use a video camera
Observer bias
Observers record what they expect rather than what really happens
Interview methods
- Interviews with child
- Interviews with parents/caregivers
Interview limitations (Interviews with child)
- Developmental language level may limit understanding and/or ability to respond
- Accuracy of child’s expressions/recall
- Responses may be influenced by the desire to please
Interview limitations (Interviews with parents/caregivers )
- Responses may be influenced by the desire to achieve/avoid diagnosis for their child (depending on the situation
- Distortions in recall and/or judgment/interpretation
what is a clinical/case study method and some examples
a method that brings together a wide range of information on one child
- observations
- parent/caregiver interviews
- test scores
- psychophysiological measures
give examples of experiments outside the lab:
- field experiments
- natural experiments
what are field experiments?
they are experiments that use rare opportunities for random assignment in natural settings
i.e. observing children in the playground
what are natural experiments?
- usually quasi-experiments
- compares differences in treatment that already exists
- groups chosen to match characteristics as much as possible
i.e. observing children playing at state vs. private school
Lab Experiments: How do we know what infants know? Methodologies?
Novelty preference & operant conditioning
what is novelty preference & its methods?
novelty preference refers to the fact that infants are more likely to pay attention to new objects or people than those they’ve seen before
- preferential looking paradigms
- habituation paradigms
what is operant conditioning & methods?
a method of learning that uses rewards and punishment to modify behaviour
- eye movements
- psychophysiological measures (e.g. heart rate)
- neuroimaging
operant conditioning: reinforcer
increases the probability of the behaviour occuring again
- presenting desirable stimulus
- removing unpleasant stimulus
operant conditioning: punishment
reduces the probability of behaviour occuring again
- presenting an unpleasant stimulus
- removing desirable stimulus
operant conditioning: what did Collier (1999) experiment on and discover?
- Collier (1999) attached a baby’s ankle to a mobile by a ribbon & they soon learnt to kick vigorously
- memory of how to activate mobile context-dependent in 3-6-month-olds
