Lecture 1 Flashcards
why and how to study human development?
What is the main concern of developmental science?
How to get from a baby who cannot express their behaviour in a complex way to a vast variety of individual adults
What are the three main aims of developmental science?
- Describe developmental change (what develops and when?)
- Explain developmental change (what are the mechanisms through which the change happens?)
- Predict developmental outcomes
What is developmental change?
The process of change that occurs in human beings throughout development
What are the four aspects of brain development mentioned?
- Growth/increase in size
- Increase in folding of the brain
- Changes in synaptic connections
- Changes in neuron structure & myelination
True or False: A baby’s brain is simply a smaller version of an adult’s brain.
False
What are the basic conceptual distinctions in developmental change?
- Qualitative (~stage-like)
- Quantitative (~continuous)
- Domain-specific (~local)
- Domain-general (~global)
What are the two main influences on developmental change?
- Nature (~inheritance)
- Nurture (~environment)
What does studying development provide insights into?
- Mature form
- Children’s capabilities
- Shaping social policy
Who is Jean Piaget and what is his contribution to developmental science?
He studied how knowledge develops in children, emphasizing that children are ‘little scientists’ who actively construct their knowledge.
What is the main idea behind the Empiricism perspective?
Newborns understand nothing at birth and all knowledge is built through experiences and associations.
What does Nativism suggest about knowledge and cognition?
Some cognitive abilities are provided by genetic inheritance, suggesting specialized learning mechanisms.
What is the focus of Comparative & Evolutionary perspectives in developmental science?
Understanding why humans develop as they do by comparing across species.
What do Cross-cultural perspectives examine in development?
Cultural variations and their influence on patterns of development.
What does Neuroscience in developmental science investigate?
How neurobiological systems give rise to psychological development.
How the nervous system changes as a result of experience?
What techniques are used in Neuroscience to measure brain activity?
Electroencephalography (EEG)
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNRIS)
What is the longitudinal approach?
the same group of people is studied repeatedly at various points in time
What are the advantages of longitudinal studies?
- Evaluates impact of earlier events on later behaviour
- Studies long-term effects
- Reveals patterns of change over time
What are the disadvantages of longitudinal studies?
- Time-consuming
- Participant dropout
- Practice effects
What characterizes a cross-sectional study?
Different groups of people are studied at each age of interest.
What is a key disadvantage of cross-sectional studies?
They do not provide information about the causes of age-related changes, and children of different ages can be subject to cohort effects.
What are cohort effects?
i.e. a given age group might differ in important ways from people who are somewhat younger or older
What are the key advantages of cross-sectional studies?
- Reveals patterns for each age group
- enables quick assessment of hypothesised differences between ages
What is the sequential approach in developmental research?
Combines features of cross-sectional and longitudinal designs for cross-cohort comparisons.
Why might one use a sequential approach?
To overcome certain limitations such as how to separate age-related changes from changes caused by the unique experiences of a particular age cohort
