Introduction and Studying Human Development Flashcards
fundamental distinctions in developmental theories
qualitative vs quantitative change
domain-general vs specific abilities
innate vs acquired abilities
qualitative change
children think in fundamentally different ways over time by improving quality
quantitative change
change in quantity of information that can be processed or knowledge you have available to you
domain-general ability
- characterise broader patterns in development of behaviours
- factors that determine your performance in particular topic areas
domain-specific
- focus on particular abilities/ behaviours with narrow effects, distinct from one another
- contributes to the variation between children
innate abilities
early-developing, similar across children, contexts, and culture
acquired abilities
- extended-over-time, with significant variation between children, contexts, and culture
- environment can influence change
how did kamirloff-smith (2013) define developmental change?
“the process of change that occurs in human beings throughout development”
what does developmental science aim to do?
- describe developmental change (what develops and when)
- explain developmental change (the mechanisms by which change occurs)
- predict developmental outcomes
The process of developmental science
- Taking humans of different ages to observe their capabilities in a specific domain
- we then understand the cognitive process that produced this progress
- We can then predict developmental outcomes and interventions
how can the nature of developmental change be seen?
examples of brain development
- growth and increase in folding of the brain (cachia, 2022)
- changes in synaptic connections (keil, 2014)
- changes in neuron structure and myelination (kulikova, 2016)
changes in synaptic connection
-our peak synaptic connections are at around 8-10 months
- synaptic pruning occurs at 1 years old, where their density decreases because abilities stabilise over time to make processing become more efficient
changes in neuron structure and myelination
- baby neurons dont have a myelin sheet , so info spreads slower
- dramatic increase of myelin after 1 month old, which insulates neurones to increase their efficiency of processing
what does the nature of developmental change show?
psychological development is not a rigid concept, as complex changes occur across several different dimensions and cannot be equated with simple growth/increase
what is studying development an insight into?
both the mature form and children’s capabilities, which allows for understanding into shaping social policy
piaget (1896-1980)
- was interested in where knowledge comes from after observing common mistakes made by children during experimental tasks
- these mistakes clustered into certain age groups
- looking at children can answer how we develop as adults
discoveries of piaget
- children’s thinking changes qualitatively with age through age/ developmental stages
- they are “little scientists” who actively construct knowledge by theories , testing and experience from the world around them
not entirely accurate, but still remains hugely inspiring for the field
what does empiricism consider?
knowledge as built up by forming associations between the phenomena we experience, as newborns understand nothing due to lack of experience with the world
What is the modern view of empiricism
- we have an all purpose learning system that connects things together as they appear together
- no biases
- present at birth
- we always use the same learning system
empiricism is informed by…
locke, berkley, and hume
what does nativism consider?
- some elements of the cognitive toolkit are provided by genetic inheritance
- there are specialised learning systems designed to process particular kinds of information
nativism is informed by…
descartes and leibniz
what do comparative and evolutionary perspectives believe?
different organisms experience similar challenges during development
- particular traits emerge through natural selection
what do comparative and evolutionary perspectives allow for?
this allows for cross-species comparison to find out the origins of various psychological capabilities
what do cross-cultural perspectives consider?
aspects of development which remain stable despite cultural differences, (e.g., visual depth, language development, or religious beliefs)
what does neuroscience use?
EEG to observe how brain development guides or constrains psychological development, and how the nervous system/physiological changes as a result of experience
methods to study developmental change
longitudinal
cross-sectional
sequential
longitudinal approach
same group of people is studied repeatedly at various time points
advantages of longitudinal approach
- powerful for establishing causality of earlier events and studying long-term effects (of training)
- may uncover long-term patterns of change in individuals
disadvantages of longitudinal approach
- time-consuming and participants may drop out during the process
- effects of participating in the experiment rather than finding the natural course of development (practice effects)
cross-sectional approach
different groups of people are studied at each age of interest
advantages of cross- sectional approach
- reveals patterns for each age group
- enables quick assessment of hypothesized differences between ages
disadvantages of cross-sectional approach
- yields no information about causes of age-related changes this means we have no causality as we dont know what drives the changes we observe
- different groups may be subject to cohort effects that impact performance (e.g. studying a 10yr old vs a 30yr old would have differences in growing up technology wise)
sequential approach
combines both cross sectional and longitudinal designs which enables cross-cohort comparisons
which allows age-related changes to be separated from changes by unique experiences of particular cohorts
How does the sequential approach work
- As well as a longitudinal study we would add one more group of (e.g. two year olds,)
- we compare them to the to two years olds measured earlier from the longitudinal design to see if there are any cohort effects
