Module 1 Flashcards
(Module Notes AND Textbook Chapter)
Define Developmental Psychology
the science of how and why people change over the life course.
What is one of the most salient reasons to study developmental psychology?
to gain a better understanding of child rearing.
Besides gaining a better understanding of child rearing, what are 2 other reasons to study developmental psychology?
1) To gain a better understanding of how our social policy decisions influence development. (Ie: intelligence testing and learning disabilities)
2) To gain insights into human nature more broadly. (Ie: attachment and relationships)
Plato and Aristotle believed that the welfare of society depended on proper child rearing. However, how did they differ in how they believed that children developed and acquired knowledge?
Plato believed that children are born with innate, conceptual knowledge.
Aristotle believed that all knowledge arises from experience.
John Locke viewed children as a “tabula rasa”. What does this term mean?
Blank slate.
(He viewed learning and development as the product of the environment and therefore that discipline was more important than individual autonomy or freedom, and this was crucial for human development.)
In contrast to John Locke’s view of children, Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that children learn best from _______________.
Their own interactions with the world.
(He argued that children should have no formal education before the age of 12, so they could have the space and freedom to explore and develop independently.)
Research on children’s development was largely driven by what two societal forces?
Social Reform & Theory of Evolution.
Which early philosopher believed that children came into the world as a “tabula rasa”?
A) Locke
B) Rousseau
C) Plato
D) Aristotle
A) John Locke
Who wrote A Biographical Sketch of an Infant in 1877?
Darwin.
(with Darwin’s work, theorists began to speculate that studying child development might lead to insights into human nature more generally. Indeed, Darwin himself was very interested in child development and published detailed observations of his own children’s development in A Biographical Sketch of an Infant).
Early psychologists, including ________ and _________, were early proponents of the importance of childhood and developmental theory.
Sigmund Freud, John Watson.
(Freud emphasized the importance of parenting in long-term development, while Watson was one of the first behaviourists to study learning in children.)
What are the 7 key themes in developmental psychology?
1) Nature and nurture
2) The active child
3) Continuity vs. discontinuity
4) Mechanisms of development
5) Sociocultural context
6) Individual differences
7) Social impact of research
Define Nature
Our biological endowment; the genes we receive from our parents.
Define Nurture
The environments, both physical and social, that influence our development.
What is interaction (in nature vs nurture)?
Epigenetics reflect the interaction of nature and nurture. That is, how changes in gene expression are mediated by the environment.
What does the idea of the “active child” focus on?
How children shape and contribute to their own development.
(Children’s actions can evoke reactions from other people and the environment, further contributing to development. For example, Eye gaze and Interpreting experiences and self-regulation).
What is one of the very earliest choices that children can make?
Eye gaze – Children choose where to direct their eyes, showing interest in different types of stimuli.
Briefly describe the idea of Continuity vs. Discontinuity.
The idea here is the trajectory by which things change over time – is developmental change continuous like a growing tree, or discontinuous like the change from a caterpillar to a butterfly?
Define Continuous.
Not much elemental change; incremental growth (e.g., getting bigger).
Define Discontinuous.
Qualitatively different at different stages; changing in “steps” (e.g., changing forms).
What are 4 underlying mechanisms that influence how children develop?
1) Biological: epigenetic changes, brain maturation
2) Behavioural: learning from the environment, rewards and punishments
3) Social: imitating and learning from others
4) Cognitive information-processing: gaining both general and specific knowledge
What are some examples of Sociocultural Context in developmental psychology?
Children grow up in context. Development is influenced by children’s physical and social environment, culture, economic situation, and historical era.
Examples: Daycare, ethnic minority status, socioeconomic status (SES).
The average poverty rate for children in Canada is ______, but for Indigenous children this rate is _______.
15%, 40%.
Developmental psychologist Sandra Scarr (1992) postulated what 4 factors through which individual differences are related to development?
1) Genetic differences: This is probably the most obvious mechanism behind individual differences.
2) Differences in treatment: Parents, teachers, and other socializing adults treat each child differently. This is often because of individual differences related to genetics, like temperament.
3) Differences in reactions: Even though the same event might happen, people interpret and react to those events differently. For example, think of all of the different ways a child might react to getting a disappointing grade on a spelling test.
4) Different choices on environments: Different children choose different environments, activities, friends, etc that in turn influence their development. For example, some children may be interested in soccer while others are interested in art classes.
According to Sandra Scarr, which of the following is NOT an example of individual differences in development?
A) Genes that predispose one child to be shy while another is outgoing
B) Molly is more physically attractive than her younger sister, and evokes different reactions from their peers
C) Harry and Ron are identical twins. Harry enjoys playing basketball while Ron prefers football.
D) All of these examples reflect individual differences in development.
D) All of these examples reflect individual differences in development.
What is reliability?
The degree to which independent measurements of a given behaviour are consistent.
What is validity?
The degree to which a test measures what it is intended to measure.
What is Inter-Rater Reliability?
The amount of agreement in the observations of different raters who witness the same behaviour.
What is Test-Retest Reliability?
The degree of similarity of a participant’s performance on two or more occasions.
What is Internal Validity?
The degree to which effects observed within experiments can be attributed to the factor that the researcher is testing
(Can effects within the experiment be attributed to the variables that the researcher intentionally manipulated? For example, are improvements in children’s behaviour related to a parenting intervention or something else like growth or time?)
What is external validity?
The degree to which results can be generalized beyond the particulars of the research.
(For example, research on children who have a diagnosis of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is often completed in a one-on-one environment in a room with little to no distractions (and often no window!). How do these findings apply to their behaviour at school, which is full of distractions?)
What is the primary goal of studies that use a correlational design?
To determine whether children who differ in one variable also differ in predictable ways in other variables. That is, is there a relationship between two variables of interest?
The direction and strength of a correlation is measured by a statistic called the ______________.
Correlation coefficient.
A correlation is positive when……..
high values of one variable are associated with high values of the other variable, as well as when low values of one are associated with low values of the other.
Acorrelation is negative when…….
high values of one are associated with low values of the other.
True or False?
Correlation does not equal causation.
True.
A significant correlation only tells us that two variables change in predictable ways together – no order to specified. Thus, we cannot say that one variable causes the other.
What is the third variable problem?
A relationship between two variables may in fact be the result of some unspecified third variable.
If correlational designs have so many limitations, what are 2 reasons why would we use them?
1) Influence of many variables of great interest—age, sex, race, and social class among them—cannot be studied experimentally.
2) Useful in describing relations among variables.
What are 3 research designs used in developmental psychology?
1) Cross-sectional Design
2) Longitudinal Design
3) Microgenetic Design
What is Cross-Sectional research design? List one pro and con of this method.
A research method in which participants of different ages are compared on a given behaviour or characteristic over a short period.
For example, a cross-sectional design could be used to examine differences in friendship between childhood and adolescence. In this case the researchers would collect data from a group of children and a group of adolescents separately.
Pros: Quick, easy
Cons: Unable to show relations over time, no patterns of change
What is Longitudinal research design? List one pro and con of this method.
A method of study in which the same participants are studied twice or more over a substantial length of time.
For example, we might follow the same group of children from preschool through to grade 5 to examine if early aggressive behaviour predicts bullying.
Pros: Can look at relationship between variables over time
Cons: Slow, expensive, attrition rates, practice effects!
What is Microgenetic research design? List one pro and con of this method.
A method of study in which the same participants are studied repeatedly over a short period.
For example, we could repeatedly test children who are on the verge of understanding Piaget’s conservation task.
Pros: Gives view of change process
Cons: Slow, expensive, difficult, practice effects!
True or False?
The term “microgenetic design” has to do with researching genetics.
False.
This name has nothing to do with genetics, it comes from “micro” meaning close up and “genesis” meaning beginnings.
What are 4 ways data can be collected with children?
- Interviews and Questionnaires
- Naturalistic and Structured Observations
- Involuntary and Voluntary Responses
- Psychophysiology
Describe the Interviews and Questionnaires research method and list one pro and con of this method.
Interviews and questionnaires involve asking individuals to report on their experiences. This might involve asking questions directly to the child, or asking parents to report on their child’s experiences. Interviews can be structured or unstructured.
Pros: Generally quick and easy. Can be tailored to the child’s age.
Cons: Desirability bias, lack of insight, and reliance on language. Remember that children are still developing - they generally do not understand why they think or feel the way that they do, and thus may not have the capacity to self-report on their own experiences.