Introduction to Developmental Psychology Flashcards
What is developmental psychology?
- mainly concerned with child psychology.
-
Why study development?
- The motivation comes from two perspectives:
1. Theoretical: The understanding of human behaviours: - are they innate?
- do they develop throughout structural changes?
- were they the result of learning/experience?
- Applied: This involves more practical questions like:
- should mothers go out to work?
- when should formal schooling normally?
- is a particular child developing normally?
- how should developmental issues inform policies pursues by society?
What is the course of development?
- this is concerned with at which age can children do and understand certain things.
- such descriptive information is vital for teachers, parents and for informing social policy.
What is the cause of development?
- this is concerned with what causes the process and what is the driving force behind?
Describe the role of nature and nurture
- had a philosophical origin
- some theorists thought that psychological processes are largely the product of our genetic inheritance (nature).
- others believe that they are largely the product of our environment and the experiences we made (nurture).
- both factors are important (today).
Define instinct in developmental psychology.
An innate behaviour that results of genetic programming.
What is maturation?
- the emergence of instinctive behaviour patterns at a particular point in development.
What is Learning?
- the change of behaviour due to specific environmental information.
Example of nurture and the development of behaviour I (Conditioning).
Classical Conditioning: here is an innate response (i.e., an instinctive behaviour) is paired with a new stimulus (conditioned stimulus) to form a conditioned response.
Instrumental/Operant Conditioning: behaviour is changed by ways of reinforcement (reward or punishment).
- Genetics has only a very indirect impact.
Example of nature and the development of behaviour I (language and imprinting)
Learning to speak your native language:
- specific language is determined by environment.
- critical age for automatic language acquisition 2-12 yrs (effects of maturation).
Chomsky came up with the idea that we are born with an innate knowledge of language (Chomsky’s Theory of Language Acquisition).
Lorenz and Imprinting: related to maturation.
refers to a form of learning that occurs at a particular age.
- the development of an attachment between adult animals and their offspring.
- related to Lorenz’s behavioural experiments with goslings.
Describe Lorenz’s Experiments (imprinting)
- Lorenz showed that goslings attach themselves to the first visible moving object they see.
- he succeeded to make the goslings attach to his rubber boots.
- the attachment to an object crucially depends on the timing called critical (sensitive) period.
capacity for forming attachments is greatly reduced outside this time window. - Lorenz’s experiments influenced Bowlby’s theory of attachment.
Identify the methods used in Developmental Psychology.
- baby diaries
- observations
- preferential looking tasks
- habituation tasks
- physiological measures.
Describe how researchers use diaries in developmental psychology.
- often diaries involved the experimenter’s own children.
- e.g., Charles Darwin’s account of his own son’s development.
- Piaget’s observations on his children Jaqueline and Laurent.
Describe how researchers use observations in developmental psychology.
- Use of special observation rooms, multiple observers and technical aids make the subjective observation process more ‘objective’.
Example: studies involving Mary Ainsworths’s Strange Situation paradigm.
Describe how researchers use preferential looking tasks in developmental psychology.
- Here the baby is presented with two stimuli to look at. It is measured which of the stimuli the baby looks at more often or longer.
- This task can not only used to measure preference but also visual discrimination abilities
