PSY210: 1. Theory + Research Flashcards
Developmental psychology
study of lifelong often age-related processes of change
how cognition + behaviour changes as we get older
Historical Views of Childhood: Preformationism
after infancy, children were regarded as mini, already formed adults
think + act same way
infancy isn’t same for us, birth-7 years
after 7, they are adults - aligns with piaget’s stage
Historical Views of Childhood: Preformationism
apprentice at jobs - can follow rules, perform basic commands at stages
we still treat children as adults
Historical Views of Childhood: Reformation
revised view of childhood sprang from religious belief of original sin
children born sinful, society’s job through education + religion to become good citizens
Historical Views of Childhood: Philosophies of the Enlightenment
John Locke - tabula rasa
blank slate - society molds us, experiences make us who we are
education - equal, general
Historical Views of Childhood: Philosophies of the Enlightenment
Jean Jacques Rousseau - noble savages: innately good
education should be universal
movie ratings
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
early prenatal growth of many species is strikingly similar
development of human child followed same general plan as evolution of human species
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
maybe development recapitulates evolution of humans
babies crawl, humans crawled, then learn to walk + talk
understand children, understand evolution of mankind
Early Scientific Beginnings: baby biographies
biographies: scientists that made daily detailed notes about children
weren’t organized, scientific, biased (own children)
Early Scientific Beginnings: Normative Period of Child Study
g. stanley hall - groups of children of similar ages, what’s typical at this age, what behaviours can they do (can they crawl?)
Early Scientific Beginnings: Mental Testing Movement
binet: french psychologist - identify children having difficulty in school
intelligence test: assess each children at each age group with stuff they’re learning at school
what cognitive skills are normal at this age?
Early Scientific Beginnings:
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Early Scientific Beginnings:
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Psychoanalytic perspective
Conflicts: 2 things shape development
• biological drives!
• social expectations!
Psychoanalytic perspective
Freud and Erikson!
• Emphasis on unique life history
freud: drive for pleasure + violence - butt against societal expectations
friction between id + superego makes personality
erikson: what conflicts are having at every stage of life?
Freud’s three parts of personality
Id " Largest portion of the mind " Unconscious, present at birth " Source of biological needs/desires Ego " Conscious, rational part of mind " Emerges in early infancy
Freud’s three parts of personality
" Redirects id impulses acceptably Superego " The conscience " Develops from ages 3 to 6 from interactions with caregivers
Freud’s three parts of personality
children born with id, but no ego + superego
we realize we can’t always get what we want
ego develops: rational - wait/substitute with other pleasure
develop superego: model after conscience of parents
Freud’s Psychosexual Stages
Oral! • Anal - anus: bathroom • Phallic! • Latency! latency: social interaction • Genital too much/little pleasure: fixated (smoke/toothpicks) anal stage: too organized
Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages
infants: is world trusting/do i not trust: do they take care of me?
integrity vs. despair: have i met my goals, am i the person i wanted to be?
am i happy with how i lived my life?
Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages
Basic trust v. mistrust Birth to 1 year Autonomy v. shame/doubt 1–3 years Initiative v. guilt 3–6 years Industry v. inferiority 6–11 years
Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages
Identity v. role confusion Adolescence Intimacy v. isolation Early adulthood Generativity v. stagnation Middle adulthood Integrity v. despair Late adulthood
Behaviourism & Social Learning
unconsciousness can’t be measured
Classical Conditioning
Stimulus– response
classical conditioning: condition child to be afraid
Operant Conditioning
Reinforcers and punishments
operant: change behaviour with reinforcement
Social Learning
Modelling
social learning: can’t constantly punish/reinforce
simply by watching other adults behave
can learn complex behaviours with one instance
Piaget: Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Children actively construct knowledge.!
• Adaptation to environment is made in order to achieve equilibrium.!
• All children move through four broad stages.
Piaget: Cognitive-Developmental Theory
there is still an inner mental state
gathering info through experiences to make sense of world - seeking equillibrium
intermental life + outside world
change intermental world
Piaget’s Stages
Sensorimotor!sensorimotor: gathering info with senses
• Preoperational!preoperational: intermental representation, but can’t mold thoughts
Piaget’s Stages
- Concrete operational!concrete: shape thoughts, but more concretely
- Formal operational formal: understand world in abstract ways, possibilities
Information Processing Theory
Human brain is symbol-manipulating system!
input equals experiences
output equals behavioural response
Development seen as continuously changing, not formal stages
Information Processing Theory
info, wm, ltm, behaviour
always same system, but slightly more efficient
same structure, can do more because of improvement in speed + efficiency
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Study of relationships between !
• changes in the brain!
• development of cognition, behaviour!
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
- Brings together researchers from!
- psychology! • biology!
- neuroscience! • medicine
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
functional, structural
infantile amnesia: no memory of infancy-3
no coherent sense of self - hard to make sense of memories
recent study: diff in brain - neurogenesis
younger than 3: producing neurons at rapid rate
at 3: neurogenesis slows
experiments with rats induced neurogenesis
new neurons, new synapses, gets in way of memories being wired
Ethology
Study of adaptive value of behaviour and its evolutionary history!
• critical period!
• sensitive period
how come this behaviour exists - adaptive
attachment: it made sense to bond with parents - stuck around + weren’t killed
Ethology
critical period: smaller
sensitive: prolonged - new skill must be learned, we miss it, difficult to learn skills
cats with no visual stimulus in early life, never learn vision
sensitive period of language acquisition
Evolutionary Developmental Psychology
Seeks to understand adaptive value of human competencies!
• Studies cognitive, emotional, and social competencies and change with age!
• Expands upon ethology
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Transmission of culture to a new generation!
• values, beliefs, customs, skills! • Social interaction necessary!
• cooperative dialogues with more knowledgeable members of society
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
by interacting they learn values…
emphasis on social interaction as source of development
Ecological Systems Theory
Bronfenbrenner argues that children develop within a system of complex human relationships that encompass immediate environments such as the family and larger environments such as communities
layer of systems of interactions
Ecological Systems Theory
Ever Changing
micro: child with family, school, child care
meso: how they interact each other
exo: community services, workplace, friends, neighbours, relatives
macro: culture, customs, laws, values
important: experiences of child are diff
Ecological Systems Theory
canada vs. us: mircosystem has similarities
when they get sick: canada values health care - goes to checkup
Developmental Periods
Prenatal Conception to birth Infancy and toddlerhood Birth to 2 years Early childhood 2 to 6 years
Developmental Periods
Middle childhood 6 to 11 years Adolescence 11 to 18 years Early adulthood 18 to 40 years Middle adulthood 40 to 65 years Late adulthood 65 years to death
Developmental Periods
early stages - 5 diff unique stages
last 80 years - only 3 stages
early on in what adulthood comprises of
we have to understand holistic perspective
3 Major Domains of
Development
physical, cognitive, emotional/social domains
Dynamic Systems
Approach
can’t have one without the other
all affect each other, as we get older, they get more dependent on each other
Influences on
Development
• Age-graded! • History-graded! • Nonnormative age-graded: puberty, happens for everyone roughly at same age history: if born at specific time period nonnormative: divorce, no specific age
Nature or Nurture
The extent the developing person’s abilities, interests, and personality are determined by biological or evolutionary influences or by environmental influences
Stability versus Plasticity (change)
To what extent do individuals stay unchanged through their lives cognitively, emotionally, and socially, or to what extent do individuals change, adapt or emerge from the environment
Stability versus Plasticity (change)
personality - lean toward stability
if you can change - plasticity
what stays the same + what changes as we age
Activity versus Passivity
Organismic versus Mechanistic
• People are active or passive in exploring the world
free will
Continuity versus Discontinuity
Development as a continuous process of growth and change or development as discontinuous
Continuity versus Discontinuity
do we start with same structure + improve in efficiency?
are there stages? - discontinuous
lifespan: continuous
piaget: discontinuous
Individual Variability
Does one course of development characterize all people, or are there many possible courses?
what better represents development: 1 lifecourse/multiple
Why Should We Learn About Research Strategies?
Helps us separate dependable information from misleading results. !
Individuals who understand research can build bridges between research and practice. !
media does poor job of describing limits + method
understanding research - make decisions on application
Common Research Methods
way of gathering info
design: how to organize info, structure gathering
Casual observations
Biased
it happens as byproduct of method
haphazard observation - casual
Systematic observations
observations done in such a way to eliminate or reduce bias.
increases chances of equal observation
coding
decision rules
procedures set in place before observation occurs
Naturalistic Observation
In the “field,” or natural environment, where behaviour happens
not every person has equal opportunity to exhibit behaviour you want to see
great external validity, but takes a long time for it to happen
Structured Observations
Laboratory situation set up to evoke behaviour of interest
All participants have equal chance to display behaviour
perspective taking in imaginary play: cops + robbers
do they see themself as them or batman
me batman: more active areas for imagination
Limitations of Systematic Observation: Observer Influence
Participants may react in unnatural ways.
– Can be minimized
minimized with cameras
Limitations of Systematic Observation: Observer Bias
Observers record what they expect, rather than what really happens.
limit through double blind + through training
Sources of self-reports
Children
Family members
Teachers and peers
interested in child, but can talk to many ppl about child
they take a long time to respond to self report
train researchers to be patient
Sources of self-reports
must be phrased in child friendly manner difficulty in phrasing answers have to be upbeat train in probing bored really easily just as likely to lie as adults
Clinical Interview
Flexible, conversational style with the aim of probing for the participant’s point of view.
Allows participants to express their thoughts and feelings in their own words.
Can yield a large amount of information in a brief period of time.
Clinical Interview
open ended interview style
allows you to ask based on responses
Limitations of Clinical Interviews
Accuracy of participants’ expressions Distortions in participants’ – Recall – Global Judgments Flexibility may make responses too varied
Limitations of Clinical Interviews
curtail answers
recall: how worried were you as a parent when ebola spread?
response may change later on: recall shaped by current view of reality
global judgements: broader the question, less useful
ask about specific behaviour
difficult to compare responses between participants
Structured Interview
Each participant is asked the same questions in the same way
May use questionnaires, get answers from groups
Limitations of Structured Interviews
Do not yield the same depth as clinical interviews
Distortions in participants’ – Recall
– Judgments
just as susceptible to distortions
Psychophysiological Methods
Measure the relationship between physiological processes and behaviour.!
How does the structure of the central nervous system contribute to development?!
Psychophysiological Methods
Inferring the perceptions, thoughts, and emotions of infants and young children, who cannot report their psychological experience directly
.young children who can’t verbalize
Measures of autonomic nervous system activity
Heart rate Blood pressure Respiration Pupil dilation
Stress hormones
out of our control, but susceptible to psychological state
heart rate decrease to new stimuli, attending to new stimuli
infer what they are doing based on these markers
Methods of Measuring Brain Functioning
Measures of electrical activity! Electroencephalogram (EEG)!
Neuroimaging techniques:!
Methods of Measuring Brain Functioning
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)! Position emission tomography (PET)! Near-infrared optical topography (NIROT)
Methods of Measuring Brain Functioning
eeg: do tasks while hooked up to see brain activity
neuroimaging: structure + functions
Choosing the correct Measure
Some measures are not well suited for research with children.
is the measurement appropriate with the age group
Near-infrared optical topography (NIROT)
Can be used on very young babies as they sit on their parent’s lap.!
NIROT is limited to examining the functioning of the cerebral cortex.
Limitations of Psychophysiological methods
Interpreting the data! Extraneous factors!
external validity
lots of noise: lots of decisions on what is meaningful
extraneous: hunger, boredom, inattentiveness, irritable
have to time studies
are they valid in the real world
Clinical/Case Study Method
Brings together a wide range of information on one individual/ group Interviews – Observations – Test scores – Psychophysiological measures
Case Study Method: Strengths
Detailed insights into factors affecting development
– Study of uncommon individuals
lots of info
Case Study Method: Limitations
Generalizability
not sure if results apply to other children
Correlational Research
A research design that permits investigators to establish relationships among variables as well as the strength of those relationships.
Magnitude
Size of the number between 0 and 1
Closer to one (positive or negative) is a stronger relationship
Correlational Research
Direction
Indicated by + or - sign
Positive (+): as one variable increases, so does the other
Negative (-): as one variable increase, the other decreases
Correlational Research
just collect them, no manipulation
children who watch sesame street had better cognitive performance + school
separate data points collected + tested for a correlation
no causation
Experiments
An experiment is a procedure in which researchers systematically manipulate and observe elements of a situation (i.e., variables) to answer their research question.
Experimental and control groups
Experimental group is exposed to proposed causative factor Control group is not exposed to proposed causative factor
Experiments
Independent variables
Experimenter changes, or manipulates
Expected to cause changes in another variable Dependent variables
Experimenter measures, but does not manipulate
Expected to be influenced by the independent variable
Field Experiment
Use rare opportunities for random assignment in natural settings
field: empathetic, caring behaviours of teacher could be passed on
half children more empathetic teacher/half normal interaction
observe whether kids passed toys to new baby
caring teacher = more likely to help
Natural Experiment (Quasi-experiment)
Compare differences in treatment that already exist
Groups chosen to match characteristics as much as possible
natural: no money/not feasable
measured stress in 2 diff cities
cannot say cause - not enough control
Longitudinal
Same participants studied repeatedly at
different ages.
literacy: track reading ability yearly
cohort: more similar to each other than others
Longitudinal Design
Advantages
Permits study of common patterns and individual differences in development and relationships between early and later events and behaviours.!
Problems!
Age-related changes may be distorted because of biased sampling, selective attrition, practice effects, and cohort effects.!
Longitudinal Design
Cohort effect: observed differences between ages that are due to cultural-historical differences and not developmental differences.!
Theoretical and methodological changes in the field can make findings obsolete.
how do they change after a year
more/less change at specific time?
Longitudinal Design
bias sampling: lots of commitment
selective attrition: ppl drop out which reduce generalizability
only certain ppl participate in this work
findings can be obsolete because it takes many years
Cross-sectional
People of differing ages all studied at
the same time.
don’t wanna invest time + money
compare cohorts
Cross-Sectional Design
Advantages Efficient ! Not plagued by selective attrition, practice effects, or theoretical and methodological changes in the field! less time 1 measurement
Cross-Sectional Design
Problems
Does not permit study of individual developmental trends
Age difference may be distorted because of cohort effects
can’t track individual patterns of change
is it the teacher, curriculum?
Sequential
Same groups of different-aged people
studied repeatedly as they change ages.
compare gr. 3s in diff years, if same then no cohort effects
Sequential Design
Advantages
When the design includes longitudinal sequences, permits both longitudinal and cross-sectional comparisons !
Reveals cohort effects !
Permits tracking of age-related changes more effectively than the longitudinal design!
Sequential Design
Problems
May have the same problems as the longitudinal and cross-sectional strategies, but the design itself helps identify difficulties
identify them, but doesn’t eliminate cohort effects
Microgenetic
Same participants studied repeatedly over a short period as they master a task or learn36 a skill.
in previous studies: snapshot of changes
short period
see whole progression of change
Microgenetic Design
Criteria
Observation period spans the entirety of change!
Frequency of observation should match the rate of change!
Advantage
Offers insights into how change occurs!
Microgenetic Design
Problems
Requires intensive study of participants’ moment-by-moment behaviours ! The time required for participants to change is difficult to anticipate! Practice effects may distort developmental trends
have to begin before change
cannot miss change
how do you know when to start + stop
must first do a cross-sectional study
have to rely on theory on how frequently to collect data
Combining Experimental and Developmental Designs
compare where they end up
