Lifespan A: Developmental, WEEK 1 Flashcards
1
Q
What is developmental psychology?
What do developmental researchers fundamentally ask?
A
- scientific study of neural, cognitive, emotional, behavioural and social development
- Developmental researchers always ask what develops? and what are the causes of development
2
Q
Definition of development
A
- idea of how humans grow & change throughout their lifespan > focusing on systematic changes which are causal, organised + successive (in psych)
3
Q
Concepts within development
A
- Universals
- Individual differences
- Continuity/Discontinuity
- Stability/Instability
(continuity + stability co-exist)
4
Q
What are universals?
A
- things that most commonly occur through species at certain points in development (e.g:when kids start to talk)
- Researchers who use universals (eg: Piaget) focus on stages + qualitative differences > assumes a ‘normal’ mature point in which variation doesn’t matter
- Experimental focus
5
Q
What are individual differences?
A
- Focuses on why people are different from each other > in this case variation is central unlike universals
- Focus on quantitative differences
- Natural focus
6
Q
What is continuity & discontinuity?
A
- Refers to how consistent groups are over time
- E.G: memory test is given today + same test given at another date and the means were the same = continuity. > if means differed = discontinuity
(how consistent are the means of the group)
7
Q
What is stability & instability?
A
- refers to rank order (your position relative to those in your group) in the group. > if you maintain the same position (eg: top/bottom) then = stability. > if your position changes from eg; bottom to top, this = instability
8
Q
2 types of stability
A
- Homotypic: when we use the same measure twice at different points in development (e.g: same IQ test used twice at different ages) (A>A)
- Heterotypic: when the original measure isn’t suitable to use at a different age due to developmental impact so a new similar measure is used, assuming same underlying ability underpins performance (e.g: measuring tantrums in children + adult has to be different) (A>A1)
9
Q
Why is stability & continuity important to development?
A
- stability + continuity is important to dev psychologists as it shows a pattern of people changing over time (continuity/discontinuity + stability/instability) > can then investigate what and why they changed
10
Q
Developmental theories
A
- Domain specific theory: focuses on a particular behaviour/skill + emphasises processes with narrow effects (e.g: Hamlins ‘moral sense’ theory)
- Domain general theory: focuses on a range of traits/skills + emphasises mechanism or processes with broad effects (e.g: Piaget’s theory of cognitive dev)
11
Q
Is age an explanation for development?
A
- Not necessarily, age is an ambiguous variable where it means different things across different times and cultures (e.g: activities a 12 year old in the Victorian times engaged in is different to what a 12 year old now would)
12
Q
Overarching theories explaining development
A
- Empiricism
- Nativism
- Pragmatism
- Developmental systems theory
13
Q
Empiricism (nurture)
Berkely & Hume etc
A
- Key idea is that people are born as ‘blank slates’ thus we gather ideas about the world through learning + reinforcement. > e.g Skinner’s study on reinforcement
- Everything an adult knows has developed through experience
- 3 term contingency relation: antecedent stimulus (e.g: parent saying don’t touch the stove), behaviour (not touching it), consequent stimulus (parent gives praise + behaviour wont repeat)
14
Q
Nativism (nature)
A
- psychologists like Chomsky and Fodor challenge Skinners idea
- concepts + knowledge are innate, not from experience
- Fodor argues the mind is comprised of innate specialised modules for processing different modules > we are born with an innate readiness to learn (e.g: we learn to do long division but we don’t learn what a number is > maturation helps build on idea of numbers)
15
Q
Nature-Nurture false dichotomy
A
- N/N work in conjunction + cannot be separated >
- genes can influence our environment (shown in adoption studies)
- environment can influence our gene expression (process is DNA > RNA > proteins > brain > development. in between processing, EV may impact > shown in animal studies)
