Elizabeth- Intro To Development Flashcards
What is development
Change in behaviour as a function of time or age. 4ps: profound (change outlook of the world), permanent (not easily reversed), progressive (bring about improvement), pervasive (affect all areas, can’t just look at one)
Why study development
Empirical reasons: comparative, understanding out relationship to other animals and role of early experience e.g. rousseau child as father to the man, we determine the adult we become. Philosophical reasons: what do humans bring to the world, what is it to be human, how can you get something from nothing like consciousness from inanimate. Practical reasons: advice to parents, interventions for DD, policy change
Early perspectives- nativism (Plato, Shakespeare, descartes,Rousseau
Plato: all ideas are innate-discovering what is already known. Shakespeare seven ages of man speech (progress but decline in old age. Descartes: nativism and mind body dualism is everything is innate. Rousseau: innately good child who develops in nature’s plan
Early perspectives- empiricism
Locke: mind is tabula rasa and development is due to experience. Earle: his soul is yet a white paper scribbled W observations of the word. James 4th did first experiment in developmental as separated twins on an island to see if lang was innate- inconclusive but some said they speak good Hebrew
Emergence of scientific discipline-Darwin
Origin of species- evolution by natural selection, also wrote a biological sketch of an infant where he did systematic observation of son doddy about lang and sense of self. Development as progressive adaptation to environment, systematic methods (not anecdotal), bio origins of human nature.
Consequences of Darwin
Gave rise to stage theories, recapitulationsim (early translation of his ideas). Haeckels maxim said ontogeny recalculated phylogeny: meaning individuals development replays the development of the species but led to misapplication e.g. halls evolutionary hierarchy said men-women-children-monkeys
5 issues in developmental psychology: 1-nature and nurture
Nativist is nature (descartes) and empiricist is nurture (Locke). Extreme empiricism: Watson said he could raise anyone to be an expert and little Albert. Extreme nativism: gesell child’s capacities a product of evolution. May have innate potential for development but for learning or learning to capacity. Modern position:plomin both are important, piaget and vygotsky are interactionist (both sides)
2- continuities and discontinuities
Discontinuous: Freud’s stages, piaget stages of cog development. Continuous: Bandura S learning theory (stepped progression vs a curve). Diff areas of development can be explained in diff ways
3- passive and active child
Are children passive ps in development moulded by experience or active by exploring and shaping themselves. Piaget says children are little scientific as make hyps and test them to change their ideas
4- longitudinal stability and influence
Do some developmental constructs remain stable over time and are some especially important in predicting next stages of development (to target) e.g. attachment
5- individual differences
What is shared by everyone and what varies
What are the causes of diffs
Shift from asking what age a task is passed to what accounts for indiv diffs if children are the same age
Methodological problems
Children aren’t reliable ps
Infants can’t talk- under 24mths
Development is noisy and influenced by a range of factors
Ethical considerations limits the kind of studies we can do to see cause and effect , longitudinal can help
The data problem
Naturalistic observation has been central to the developmental research e.g. is darwin, piaget. Problem: how to obtain valid measures while maintaining naturalism
Problem: naturalistic contexts differ- children acts diff in diff contexts
The developmental task
Instead of qual observation, researchers design tasks to measure spec abilities. E.g. unexpected transfer task wimmer and perner/sally Anne task to test ToM, uses control a e.g. where did they leave it to test memory. W: lack of EV, children not compliant or don’t understand, minor changes can alter children’s performance
Establishing cause
Central challenge: how to move from how the mind develops to what causes the changes. Correlational studies can see how one effects the other but not the cause e.g. false belief task correlated W verbal iq. But 1: can’t establish cause direction and 2: unseen affecting variables
The experimental method
Manip iv and measure dv while controlling confounding. Can be done in a lab, in natural environment to see cause. W: ps may not comply W training or intervention as busy, can’t generalise to all pops , over reliance on performance on spec tasks so can’t see if applies to other contexts, effects may not be maintained on time
Choosing the right age
Need to make sure that tasks are age appropriate, avoid floor and ceiling effects
If you want to have a range of ages, how do you make tasks suitable for diff age groups testing the same construct
Attachment definition and bonding
The relationship between caregiver and child, child’s behaviour toward caregiver, also abstract construct of a close relationship to any sig other. Bonding is maternal response to infant in first days and attachment not till 2nd half of first year
Bowlby
94 study of juvenile thieves-noted they had absent mothers, reported to who on issues due to maternal deprivation after ww2. Accepted friends ideas on infant mother relationship being template for other relationships. Caused controversy as used to believe attachment formed to those who provided physical needs- secondary drive/cupboard thoery, he said infants have innate drive to form a close relationship. Used ethnological studies as support (others evidence) and attachment behaviour (clinging, crying) from animals
Bowlby supporting evidence
Anna Freud and Dann: attachment between 6 3-4 year olds from conc camp (v anxious if separated) no physical needs so primary drive. Harlows monkeys preferred comfort over food.
Criticism of bowlby
Had big controversy in general. Justified: generalised from clinical samples (said all separation was traumatic), used as propaganda to get women back in the home). Concerned W making and braking of attachment (ignore ind diffs). Single attachment to mother/monotropy, need own mother (says other relationships don’t matter)
Mary ainsworth
Wanted empirical evidence of bowlby. Interested in how ind diffs in behaviour were due to infant mother interaction. Ganda group in Uganda (had group caregivers). Found infants formed attachments to many providing care- challenged monotropy
Schaffer and Emerson
Multiple attachments observed in a sample of inner city scottish children
Infants attached to both parents, grandparents, siblings
Challenged mototropy but supported abandoning secondary drive (as people were not feeding them..)
James Robertson
Films of children staying hospital-originally parents weren’t allowed to see children. Separation causes distress but prolonged separation broke attachment as became despair then detachment. Supports abandonment of secondary drive but saw dynamic nature of attachment (needs but no attach,ECT, diff on diff days)
