Introduction to Childhood Development

Question 1

Why Study Childhood Development

Answer 1

Raising Children
Choosing Social Polocies
Understanding Human Nature

Question 2

Nature vs Nurture

Answer 2

Nature refers to our biological endowment, especially the genes we receive from our parents.
Physical characteristics, emotional
temperament? IQ?
Nurture refers to the wide range of
environments, both physical and social, that influence our development.
Prenatal teratogens, family styles, etc

Question 3

The Active Child

Answer 3

Children’s actions
contribute to their own
development, even during
their first year of life:
Attentional patterns
Use of language
Play
As children grow older, they have even more control of their
environmental influence.

Question 4

Continuity/Discontinuity

Answer 4

Continuous Change: Change with age occurs gradually, in small increments
Discontinuous Change: Change with age includes occasional large shifts

Question 5

Mechanisms of Change

Answer 5

The interaction of genes and environment determines both what changes occur and when those changes occur.
How does developmental change occur?
*Effortful attention
‐Gene influence
‐Parenting influence
‐Children’s experience

Question 6

Sociocultural Context

Answer 6

The physical, social, cultural, economic,
and historical circumstances that make
up any child’s environment

Question 7

Aristotle (384‐322)

Answer 7

Fitting child rearing to needs of individual child: All knowledge
comes from experience

Question 8

Plato (437‐347)

Answer 8

Self‐Control & Discipline:
Children are born with
innate knowledge

Question 9

John Locke (1632-1704)

Answer 9

saw infants as a “tabula rasa”or blank slate; emphasized children’s need for
discipline beforefreedom.

Question 10

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

Answer 10

believed that children learned from their own actions; emphasized children’s need for freedom before discipline and formal education.

Question 11

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Psychoanalytic Theory

Answer 11

Biological drives influence development

Question 12

John Watson (1878-1958) Behaviorist Theory:

Answer 12

Children’s behavior develops from rewards and punishments they receive

Question 13

Scientific Method

Answer 13

1. Choosing a Question
2. Do Background Research
3. Formulate Hypothesis (If/Then)
4. Testing Hypothesis
5. Draw Conclusions

Question 14

Measurement (Reliability)

Answer 14

the degree to which
independent measurements of a
given behavior are consistent

Question 15

Measurement (Validity)

Answer 15

the degree to which a
test measures what it is intended
to measure

Question 16

Reliability: Test-Retest vs interrater

Answer 16

Test-Retest:a measure of reliability obtained by administering the same test twice over a period of time to a group of individuals
Interrater:a measure of consistency used to evaluate the extent to which different judges agree in their assessment decisions

Question 17

Validity: Internal vs external

Answer 17

Internal: the degree of confidence that the causal relationship being tested is trustworthy and not influenced by other factors or variables.
External: the extent to which you can generalize the findings of a study to other situations, people, settings, and measures

Question 18

Interviews (Structured)

Answer 18

a research procedure in
which all participants are
asked to answer the same
questions

Question 19

Interviews (clinical)

Answer 19

a procedure in which
questions are adjusted in
accord with the answers the
interviewee provides

Question 20

Naturalistic observation

Answer 20

examination of ongoing
behavior in an environment
not controlled by the
researcher

Question 21

Structured observation

Answer 21

a method that involves
presenting an identical
situation to each child and
recording the child’s
behavior