Lecture 1: Introduction

Question 1

What is social development?

Answer 1

• Includes affective, cognitive, and social aspects
  of development
• Social Psychology focuses on how we relate to
  others and how others influence our behaviours,
  feelings and thoughts

Question 2

Emergence (1870s - 1900s)

Answer 2

• Baby biographies (Darwin Hall) data was starting to be collected through baby biographies
• Beginning of scientific inquiry and empirical inquiry based on observations

Question 3

Middle Period (1900s-1960s)

Answer 3

Maturationalist approach: Chart and describe the unfolding of endowed characteristics

• Environmentalist approach: rise of (Behaviourism) -experimentally and objectively determines how the child learns
• Socialization: Psychoanalytic and sociological theory - how do adults contribute to child growth and development

Question 4

Morden Era (1960s-today)

Answer 4

Structuralist approach: Piaget, Kohlberg - Social processes are important and child is an active agent.
- Understanding of genes and their effect

• Normative-descriptive focus resulting in Stage theories.
• development of curriculum , what can a child do and what are they expected to do

Question 5

Longitudinal design

Answer 5

• study the same people over time
• Good - Within Subjects design - age differences are not attributable to between-subject differences
• Bad - practice effects (repeated measures), practical difficulties (Each time they do it, they’ll get better and better because of practice) attrition

Question 6

Cross-sectional designs

Answer 6

• study different people at
  one time
• Good no practice effects (no repeated measures), no practical difficulties, no attrition
• Bad - Between Subjects design - age differences are attributable to between subject differences - sampling; Cohort effects due to confounding

Question 7

Goals of research: Exploration

Answer 7

to determine whether or not a
phenomenon exists

Question 8

Goals of research: Description

Answer 8

examining a phenomenon to
more fully define it or to differentiate it from
other phenomena

Question 9

Goals of research: Prediction

Answer 9

identifying relationships that
enable us to speculate about one thing by
knowing about some other thing

Question 10

Goals of research: Explanation

Answer 10

Examining cause and effect
relationships

Question 11

Why are descriptive methods popular

Answer 11

• Urgent and applied need for descriptive information about age changes
• Influence of Ethology (description, classification and analysis of animal behavior)
• Electronic recording which permits observation and analysis of complex behavior

Question 12

Naturalistic Observation

Answer 12

• The study of behaviour in its natural setting (also called field study):
• First step in understanding behavior.
• More natural and realistic than experiment or
  questionnaire
• Appropriate for studying children because they are prone to behaving differently in an unnatural setting.
• Its main limitation is the lack of control over any of the variables involved

Question 13

Diary descriptions

Answer 13

• Recording of developmental changes that occur. Demands prolonged and frequent contact with the child.
• You can record every little detail, but its subjective, time consuming, influences the child (bias)
• Too much to analyze; a lot of information

Question 14

Specimen descriptions

Answer 14

• Similar to diary descriptions, in the sense
  that they are narrative records.
• They provide, however, more complete detail about a single episode of occurrence of a particular behaviour.
• Does not require prolonged and frequent
  contact with the child.
• Single episode of behaviour; just one event
• Narrow aspect of development

Question 15

Time sampling

Answer 15

• Narrow down amount recorded to selected aspects of behaviour, as they occur within a specified interval of time.
• More data-oriented; quantitative methods
• Count the number of times a particular behavior occurs within a certain amount of allotted time o
• More data-orientated, very objective, with clear criteria
• Problem: not all that detailed, what’s the time frame

Question 16

Event sampling

Answer 16

Similar to time sampling,
however, time aspect is removed and replaced by
event.
- Involves recording each instance of a
particular behavior as it occurs - has become
major technique in child development.

Question 17

Rating scales

Answer 17

• Select behaviors, develop scales,
  and rate child’s behaviour.
• Observer judges
  against specific criteria. Very good for experimental work, lacks detail and richness.
• You basically narrow down behavior to something of interest and rank it o Most operationalize/operationally define

Question 18

How data is collected: Checklist notation

Answer 18

Requires observers to impose some structure by selecting and defining behaviour ahead of time. Time and event sampling - although they can be
combined with some narration as well.

We can use all narrative types, checklist notation, and rating scales.

Question 19

Observational guidelines

Answer 19

1. Make a clear distinction between what is actually seen or heard and conclusions drawn from it
2. Interpret what you observe from the child’s viewpoint
3. Draw no conclusions which cannot be positively justified by the actual observation
4. Describe in writing, the purpose and procedure involved in your observation
5. Be sure you have the approval to make the observation you are about to make
6. Get advice about where to position yourself if you are not to interact with child
7. Take down exact words and behaviours whenever possible
   8 Record

Question 20

Observer bias

Answer 20

We expect and see what we want to
see

Question 21

Confirmation bias

Answer 21

we seek information that confirms
our beliefs while neglecting other information

Question 22

Halo effect

Answer 22

Saying good things about people we like
and bad things about people we don’t like