Intro to developmental psychology Flashcards
What did Nicholas Humphrey mean when he described people as “nature’s psychologists”?
As intelligent social beings, we use our knowledge of our own thoughts and feelings (introspection) as a guide for understanding how others are likely to think, feel and behave
Argued that our self-awareness is useful to us for this purpose –> successful social existence
Consciousness as a biological adaption to enable this introspective psychology
What do we mean by development?
The process by which an organism grows and changes throughout its lifespan
Critical development happens during early years, but change can occur at any point during the life span of an individual, driven by a variety of influences
What is the purpose of developmental psychology?
Scientific study of the PROCESS OF CHANGE in mental processes and behaviour during a lifetime
Describe, explain and predict behaviour at certain stages of the developmental cycle
Why is the study of developmental psychology important?
Allows us to have the understanding which permits us to influence behaviour and develop interventions to stop certain maladaptive behaviours at the root of the problem
Essentially allow optimisation of conditions to allow for healthy development
What are the 3 main types of development?
Phsyical e.g. height and weight, motor abilities
Perceptual/cognitive e.g. vision, hearing, language, reasoning
Social e.g. identity, relationships
What is meant by continuous development?
Quantitative change - monotonic increase as a function of age
Doing more or less of something e.g. increase vocabulary size
What is meant by discontinuous development?
Qualitative change
Doing something differently e.g. crawling –> walking
Levelling up in sophistication of interactions with the world
What does the nativist approach suggest regarding influences on processes of development?
Maturation of characteristics and behaviour are wholly predetermined by innate biological factors
Genes determine the first stages of our development e.g. cell division and differentiation and we are programmed by a biological clock to develop at a set rate (reach set milestones at genetically predetermined times)
What does the empiricist/”nurture” approach suggest regarding development?
Tabula rasa
Behavioural characteristics determined entirely by experiences, acquired through learning rather than being innate
Environment provides energy and building materials, and stimulation in the form of visual, auditory, social etc interactions with our surroundings
Social clocks shape our lives i.e. social norms such as the right age to get married, but events in our lives can also defy these norms very easily and thus make us different people at any stage in our lives
What is the current consensus regarding the influences on development?
Contributions from both nature and nurture
Also INTERACTIONS between nature and nurture i.e. our genes determine our environment, and then our environment influences our development and behaviour
What 3 types of interaction between genes and the environment were suggested by Scarr and McCartney?
1) PASSIVE INTERACTION - Parental genes influence child’s environment and subsequent development
2) EVOCATIVE INTERACTION - Innate characteristics of a child elicit response from surroundings, thus genes influencing surroundings which then influences future behaviour
3) ACTIVE INTERACTION - Individual seeks out environment best suited to personal capabilities/motivations
What do observational methods involve?
Observing and recording subjects’ behaviour and drawing inferences as to possible underlying cognitive processes (certain behaviour categories will normally be defined in advance and are scored when they occur)
What is the difference between “naturalistic” and “structured” observations?
Naturalistic involves measuring behaviour in natural settings - the investigator can be a non-participant, or can be an actor within a situation e.g. when studying things like gang behaviour
Structured observations involve measuring behaviour in an artificial setting
What are the 2 self-report methods commonly used?
Clinical interviews - conversational and tailored to subject’s individual level of ability and understanding, reliant on development of good rapport
Structured interviews/questionnaires - more fixed set of questions used
What are the 2 possible experimental designs used in developmental psychology and what is an important caution?
Cross-sectional - testing individuals of differing ages at one given time
Longitudinal - testing the same individuals at different points in time
Neither design is going to be fully representative of changes with age alone - historical events affecting some/all participants and unique life experiences may impact more on the variable being measured, thus we are not necessarily measuring uninterrupted natural developmental stages
What are 3 advantages of naturalistic observation methods?
1) Observations more likely to be representative of normal behaviour
2) Richly detailed and descriptive data (esp useful where little research exists for a particular phenomenon)
3) Can follow up observations using correlational analysis
What are 5 disadvantages of naturalistic observation methods?
1) no experimental control - many extraneous variables
2) Behaviours of interest left to chance - may never even happen in the observation window
3) Simply the presence of an adult observer may influence a child’s behaviour
4) Observer bias
5) Tells us little about child’s own reasoning behind their behaviour
What is meant by observer bias?
Tendency to only see what already expecting/hoping to see
Researchers often come into an experiment with prior knowledge and subjective feelings about the group/behaviour being studied
What are 3 advantages of structured observations?
1) Higher degree of experimental control
2) Elimination of extraneous variables
3) Able to measure behaviours which might be difficult to see in natural settings
What are 3 disadvantages of structured observations?
1) The experimental scenario may not be fully generalisable and thus behaviour recorded may not be fully representative
2) Observer bias
3) Tells us little about child’s reasoning behind their behaviour
What are 3 advantages of clinical interviews?
1) Examining thinking rather than simply inferring from behaviour
2) Interview tailored to the individual i.e. greater specific relevance of information
3) Probe widely and deeply in little time
What are 3 disadvantages of clinical interviews?
1) Subjects may not respond accurately or truthfully
2) Requires a skilled interviewer - rapport and probing effectively
3) Child must have sufficient linguistic understanding
What are 3 advantages of structured interviews/questionnaires?
1) Easier to quantify so able to make more valid comparisons between subjects
2) Examine thinking rather than inferring it
3) Efficient way to collect data from large sample
What are 3 disadvantages of structured interviews/questionnaires?
1) Don’t get depth of detail as in clinical interviews
2) Subjects may not respond truthfully or accurately
3) Child must have sufficient understanding and linguistic ability
