Lecture 1 - Introduction

Question 1

What is development?

Answer 1

“A process by which an organism (human or animal) grows and changes through its lifespan” (Smith et al, 2003, p.5).
Most obvious forms of development are prenatal, infancy, childhood and adolescence

Question 2

Name the 3 central concerns in developmental psychology

Answer 2

Continuity vs discontinuity
Nature vs nurture
Plasticity

Question 3

Which type of development is a continual and cumulative process?

Answer 3

Normative development

Question 4

Explain the discontinuity view

Answer 4

The discontinuity view sees development as more abrupt-a succession of changes that produce different behaviours in different age-specific life periods called stages. Biological changes provide the potential for these changes.

Question 5

Who developed the 4 essential criteria for stage theories?

Answer 5

Flavell (1971)

Question 6

Explain the 4 essential criteria for stage theories

Answer 6

Stage theories are discontinuous e.g. transition between babbling and talking.
• Stages distinguished by qualitative changes
• Stage transitions marked by other aspects of change
• When changes occur, they are rapid
• Behavioural and physical changes are coherent

Question 7

Give an example of a stage theory and the 4 essential criteria

Answer 7

Example: Crawling to walking

1) Muscle control
2) New quality of attachment with caregiver (begin to seek out caregiver)
3) 90 days on average (rapid development)
4) Point, follow faces, first words occur at the same time

Question 8

What use is there to graph a child’s development?

Answer 8

Graphing a child’s development can be helpful for understanding a child’s development, particularly when plotting atypical development which can be used to facilitate intervention.

Question 9

Explain the continuous function graph

Answer 9

Continuous function (increased)e.g. words in vocabulary, intelligence / (decreased) e.g. speech perception worsens as language improves

Question 10

Explain the discontinuous function graph

Answer 10

Step/discontinuous function (series of stages) e.g. mobility, sit>stand>walk, morality

Question 11

Explain the inverted-u function graph

Answer 11

Inverted-U function e.g. athletic ability improves throughout early life, peaking at early adulthood and then worsens after middle age

Question 12

Explain the u-shaped function graph

Answer 12

U-shaped function e.g. stepping reflex on hard surfaces is innate at birth, this is replaced early on as the energy is instead used elsewhere, this returns as a child begins to walk

Question 13

Explain the contributions of each source of development

Answer 13

• Nature – what are we born with? (inherited biological predispositions)
• Nurture – impact of our environment (socio-cultural influences)

Question 14

What are two effective ways to study nature-nurture?

Answer 14

1. Twin studies: Identical twins have the same genotype, and fraternal twins have an average of 50% of their genes in common.
2. Adoption studies: Similarities with the biological family support nature, while similarities with the adoptive family support nurture.

Question 15

What does plasticity mean?

Answer 15

The degree to which, and the conditions under which, development is open to change and intervention. Plasticity can occur either deliberately (improving) or not (deprivation).

Question 16

Describe the difference between stability and change

Answer 16

Stability implies personality traits present during infancy endure throughout the lifespan. In contrast, change theorists argue that personalities are modified by interactions with family, experiences at school, and acculturation. This capacity for change is called plasticity. For example, Rutter (1981) discovered than somber babies living in understaffed orphanages often become cheerful and affectionate when placed in socially stimulating adoptive homes.

Question 17

Describe Darwin’s early research in developmental psychology

Answer 17

Charles Darwin is credited with conducting the first systematic study of developmental psychology. In 1877 he published a short paper detailing the development of innate forms of communication based on scientific observations of his infant son, Doddy.

Question 18

Which 3 key figures dominated the field with their extensive theories of human development?

Answer 18

Jean Piaget (1896-1980), Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) and John Bowlby (1907-1990). Indeed, much of the current research continues to be influenced by these three theorists.

Question 19

Describe Lorenz’s research

Answer 19

Lorenz’s research demonstrated evidence of a critical period (maturational stage during which a particular skill or characteristic is believed to be most readily acquired) in goslings. Lorenz conducted an experiment in which goslings were hatched either with their mother or in an incubator. Once goslings had hatched they proceeded to follow the first moving object they saw between 13 and 16 hours after hatching. This supports the view that having a biological basis for an attachment is adaptive as it promotes survival. This would explain why goslings imprint after a matter of minutes due to their increased mobility; human babies are born immobile and therefore is less call for them to form an attachment straight away, and so, this develops later (8-9 months).

Question 20

Critical periods vs Sensitive periods

Answer 20

An alternative to critical periods is sensitive periods, these are developmental windows of opportunity during which the child can learn specific concepts more easily and naturally than at any other time in their lives. The sensitive period for learning to speak is from is from 7 months to 2.5-3 years of age. The prenatal influence on language development is important. By age three the child is ideally speaking 2-3 word sentences.

Question 21

What are the 5 main domains of development?

Answer 21

1) Physical
2) Cognitive
3) Psychosocial
4) Emotional
5) Linguistic

Question 22

Identify the types of development and their age periods

Answer 22

• Prenatal (conception to birth)
• Infancy/toddlerhood (birth to 3 y/o
• Preschool/early childhood (3-5 y/o)
• Middle childhood (6 to 12 y/o)
• Adolescence (13 to 18 y/o)

Question 23

What are the developmental designs?

Answer 23

Cross-sectional study, Longitudinal study, Cohort study, Cohort-sequential design

Question 24

Describe a cross-sectional study

Answer 24

type of observational study that analyses data from a population, or a representative subset, at a specific point in time

Question 25

Describe a longitudinal study

Answer 25

an observational research method in which data is gathered for the same subjects repeatedly over a period of time.

Question 26

Describe a cohort study

Answer 26

look at groups of people

Question 27

Describe a cohort-sequential design

Answer 27

adjacent segments consisting of limited longitudinal data on a specific age cohort can be linked together with similar segments from other temporally related age cohorts to determine the existence of a common developmental trend.