Midterm 1 Flashcards
what is baby biographies?
detailed, systematic observations of individual children written by many scientists
->info in this was often subjective but it paved the way for objective analytic research
what is applied developmental research?
branch of child-development research
->uses developmental research to promote healthy, optimal development, particularly for vulnerable children and seniors
what two events set the stage for the creation of child development science?
- industrial revolution (as children entered the workforce)
- publication of charles darwin’s theory of evolution
name the foundational theories of child development
- the biological perspective
- the psychodynamic perspective
- the learning perspective
- the cognitive developmental perspective
- the contextual perspective
* good summary of these on page 18 of textbook
describe the biological perspective and its two associated theories
intellectual and personality development as well as physical and motor development is rooted in biology
1. maturational theory: child development reflects a specific and prearranged scheme or plan within the body (development is a natural unfolding of biology’s plan; experience matters little)
->this theory was eventually discarded as it had little to say about the impact of environment on children’s development
2. Ethological theory: views development from an evolutionary perspective
-behaviours in this theory are inherited and are
adaptive and have survival value (crying, grasping, clinging elicit caregiving from adults)
-includes a critical period in development where specific learning takes place (ex. imprinting or creating an emotional bond with the mother, can only happen within 24 hours of hatching)
Describe the psychodynamic perspective
=the oldest scientific perspective on child development, originating in the work of Sigmund Freud
- Freud was convinced that early experiences establish patterns that endure throughout a persons life
- using his patients case histories he created the first psychodynamic theory which holds that development is largely determined by how well people resolve certain conflicts at different ages
- The role of conflict is evident in Freuds descriptions of the 3 primary components of personality. the “id” is a reservoir of primary instincts and drives, the *ego is the practical, rational core component of personality and is what resolves conflicts. the superego is the “moral agent” in the child’s personality where they begin to internalize adult standards of right and wrong.
Describe Freud’s five psychosexual stages of personality development
- as the sex instinct matures, the focus shifts to a different area of the body
1. Oral (birth-1year): babies put everything in their mouth
2. Anal (1-3years): toilet training
3. Phallic (3-6years): fascinated with their own genitals
4. Latency (6-11years): not much happening in this phase
5. Genital (12+years): interested also in others genitals - he believed that conflicts or inappropriate parental response at any stage of development could lead to fixations, where mental energies are occupied in activities reminiscent of that stage
describe the 8 stage Psychosocial theory (neo-Freudian theory) of development by Erik Erikson (1950)
development comprises a sequence of stages, each defined by a unique life crisis or challenge (conflict between two opposing tendencies)
- the name of each of the 8 stages reflects the challenge that individuals face at a particular age
- earlier stages provide the foundation for the later stages
- the “ego” as an active participant in development and personality is shaped through social/cultural conflicts
- how the individual resolves the crisis shapes personality
- first year -> Basic trust vs. mistrust (challenge= to develop a sense that the world is a safe, “good place”)
- 1-3years -> Autonomy vs. shame and doubt (challenge = to realize that one is an independent person who can make decisions)
- 3-6years -> Initiative vs. guilt (challenge= to develop a willingness to try new things and to handle failure)
- 6-12years -> Industry vs. Inferiority (challenge= to learn basic skills and to work with others)
- 12-20years -> Identity vs. Identity/role confusion (challenge= to develop a lasting, integrated sense of self)
+ 3 more in adulthood
describe the learning perspective
endorse John Locke’s view that the infant’s mind is a blank slate on which experience writes. john watson applied this approach to child development and argued that learning determines what children will be (experience was all that mattered in determining the course of development)
- focus on observable behaviour, not speculation about the unconscious
- Watson applied classical conditioning procedures to humans/babies to condition fear (ie little Albert)
- BF Skinner studied operant conditioning in which the consequences of a behaviour determine whether that behaviour is repeated in the future (influential consequences = reinforcement and punishment)
Social Cognitive theory (developed by Albert Bandura-1977): Learning by observing others (models), not dependent on reinforcement
-proposed reciprocal determinism (environment and child both influence each other)
describe the cognitive-development perspective
focuses on how children think and on how their thinking changes as they grow (the mental aspect of development)
-as children try and comprehend their surroundings, they create theories about the physical and social world
-children go through 4 distinct stages in cognitive development with each stage representing a fundamental change in how children understand and organize their environment and each stage is characterized by more sophisticated types of reasoning
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development:
stage 1: Sensorimotor -> birth-2 (infants knowledge of the world is based on senses and motor skills, by the end of period, infant uses mental representations)
stage 2: Preoperational -> 2-7 (learns how to use symbols such as words and numbers, to represent aspects of the world, but relates to the world only through their perspective)
stage 3: Concrete Operations -> 7-11 (understands and applies logical operations to experiences; provided they are focused on the here and now)
stage 4: formal operations -> 11+ (thinks abstractly, speculates on hypothetical situations, and reasons deductively about what may be possible
describe the Contextual perspective
Vygotsky emphasized cultural context in child development. he focused on ways that adults convey beliefs, customs, and skills of their culture to children (sociocultural (cognitive) theory) = cognitive development happens in a social context
ZPD= Zone of proximal development (difference between what a child can do alone and what a child can do with help)
-includes Bronfenbrenner’s theory of ecological systems
Bronfenbrenner’s theory of ecological systems (part of the Contextual perspective)
- detailed characteristics of various environmental influences on development
- views the child as being embedded in a series of interacting systems:
1. microsystem= consists of the people and objects in an individual’s immediate environment (ie parents/close family)*strongly influence development
2. mesosystem= are connected microsystems (one happens in one microsystem, is likely to influence others)
3. exosystem= refers to social settings that a person may not experience first-hand but that still influence development (ex. a mother may pay more attention to her child when her work is going well)
4. macrosystem= the subcultures and cultures in which the microsystem, mesosystem and exosystem are embedded (a mother, her workplace, her child and the child’s school are part of a larger cultural setting)
5. chronosystem= these dimensions change over time in a system known as the chronosystem (they are not static systems but are always in flux)
what is the continuity-versus discontinuity issue?
continuity- believing that development is a continuous process (a cheerful 5 year old remains outgoing and friendly throughout their life) *once a child begins down a developmental path, they stay on that path throughout life.
- This issue is about the “relatedness” of development. are early aspects of development consistently related to later aspects?
- neither view is accurate, development is not perfectly predictable but early development is related to later development but not perfectly
what is development ?
systematic continuities and changes in an individual over the course of life
*we focus on the scientific basis of knowledge about development
what are the big 3 central issues regarding development ?
- continuous or discontinuous
- nature vs nurture (genetic vs. environment)
- passive vs. active
what are the three main domains of development that we will focus on?
physical, emotional/social and cognitive
*development in different domains is connected
what derives development?
Maturation: Hereditary influences on aging process
Learning: Change in behaviour due to experience
what are the goals of developmental psychology?
- > Describe
- > Explain
- > Optimize
describe the active-passive issue of development
are children simply at the mercy of their environment/genetic influence (passive child) or do children actively influence/contribute to their own development through their unique individual characteristics (active child)
- the passive view corresponds to Locke’s blank slate on which experience writes; the active view corresponds to Rousseau’s view of development as a natural unfolding that takes place within the child
- parent/child relationship is bidirectional *they both influence each other
- therefore, children do influence their own development
child development researchers follow the scientific method to test hypotheses which involves several steps; describe the scientific method steps
- > identify a question to be answered or a phenomenon to be understood
- > Form a hypothesis (based on theory) that is a tentative answer to the question or a tentative explanation of the phenomenon
- > select a method to collect data that can be used to evaluate the hypothesis
- > remain objective and evaluate the hypothesis
what is a theory?
an organized set of ideas designed to describe and explain an existing set of observations; this allows one to make predictions about development
what is a hypothesis
a theoretical prediction about some aspect of experience
->theory derives research
describe normative vs ideographic development
normative= developmental pattern that describe the majority of species
ideographic- accounts for individual differences or variation in development
what is resiliency in terms of development?
the ability to adopt effectively in the force of threats to development
->linked to genetic traits, parental relationships, social network/community
what are environmental “threats” in development?
associated with statistical probabilities of negative outcomes (ex. poverty, divorce, drug use/abuse, family violence, etc.)
define systematic observation
research method that involves watching children and carefully recording what they do or say
there are to forms:
1. naturalistic- children are observed as they behave spontaneously in a real life situation
-beforehand researchers must decide which variables to record
2. structured- the researcher creates a setting likely to elicit the behaviour of interest (ex. gets kids to play a game may create competition)
-good for studying behaviours that are difficult to study naturally
define self reports
research method that includes children’s own responses to questions about the topic of interest
- take the place of interviews and questionnaires
- may use the clinical method (flowchart sequence, if child does A, then go to B)
what is construct validity ?
if a test measures the theoretical construct it is supposed to be measuring
what is research design and what are the two main forms?
how the study is set up to test the hypothesis (an overall conceptual approach)
-child development researchers usually use one of two designs: correlational (more common for developmental research) or experimental studies
describe correlational studies
investigators look at relations between variables as they exist naturally in the world. measures 2 or more variables and looks at how they are related
- results expressed as a correlation coefficient (r), which stands for the direction and strength of a relation between two variables
- correlations can range from -1.0 to +1.0
- when r =0, two variables are completely unrelated
Describe experimental studies
researchers introduce a manipulation or change in the environment and measures the effect of that change (manipulation to test)
- factor that is varied is called the independent variable
- behaviour that is measured is called the dependent variable
- allows for statements of causality
what are quasi-experimental designs?
researcher manipulates independent variables in a natural setting so that the results are more likely to be representative of behaviour in real world settings (kids in an orphanage dont get much human interaction- you couldn’t create this experience ethically but can be studied naturally)
longitudinal design
the same individuals are observed or tested repeatedly at different points in their lives
- less confounds but harder to do (more time)
- children may drop out or get good at the tests due to practice
- cohort effect (dev. change may be specific to a generation)
microgenetic study
special type of longitudinal study where children are tested repeatedly over a span of days or weeks, typically with the aim of observing changes directly as it occurs
cross-sectional design
dev. changes are identified by testing children of different ages at one particular point in their development
- one task, multiple age groups participate (is there a difference b/w age groups?)
