Revisiting Key Themes in Developmental Psychology

Question 1

What are Prenatal Factors?

Answer 1

• Things that are innate might be due to influences in utero e.g alcohol fetal syndrome or early taste preferences based on maternal diet in pregnancy
• Mother has influence on env before and after birth: parental exposures in utero, culture and maternal mental health

Question 2

How does nature elicit nurture?

Answer 2

• Infant qualities naturally elicit nurturing qualities from parents/adults e.g cute faces and smiles, crying and resemblance to parents
• Child temperament elicits specific responses from parents e.g difficultness in infants evoke parental criticism, hostility and tendency to ignore child
• Individuals seek out experience: infants preference for certain stimuli helps learn about world and individuals actively choose things that reinforce abilities
• Individual’s development is supported by their aims to understand the world: looking longer at impossible events and interpretations of emotions and events

Question 3

How does development over time reveal genetics/env?

Answer 3

• Genetic effects can be relevant as you develop e.g good runners, short sightedness
• Env exposures may be needed to trigger the effect of genes e.g sedentary lifestyle, stressful life events
• EX: aggression as a combo of genetic/env factors - adoption study from prev lecture, parenting interplay AND scaffolding

Question 4

How do we see development at the individual level?

Answer 4

• Child at young age often predicts later development e.g temperament and intelligence
• Can be changes at individual level via recovery from early adversity e.g adoption OR high activity at age 2 years would not predict ADHD at 7yo

Question 5

How do we see development at the societal level?

Answer 5

• Culture/society changes over time
• Increase in time spent with parents/fathers
• Influence of technology/social media
• Change in prevalence of disorders over the past decades
• EX: prosocial behaviours and peer behaviour, autistic behaviours change/cont across lifetime, peer influences and when it cont over childhood

Question 6

Where does development happen for all?

Answer 6

• Development happens to all in the same way, at the same time
• Motor development
• Perceptual development
• Attention and early language

Question 7

Why are individual differences important?

Answer 7

• People react differently to similar experiences
• Differences in nature/nurture
• Even from those in same family/background
• Useful for understanding and helping those with problems

Question 8

Why do we compare developmental patterns?

Answer 8

• Understanding differential development can help us understand development e.g Deaf children and ToM
• Knowledge of child development can tell us about differential development e.g when over-activity becomes ADHD
• When experiences DO NOT lead to behavioural differences: e.g resilience, understanding of differential behaviour and possible targets for intervention/support
• EX: peer relationships and identification with non-conventional crowds and developmental disorders to see typical development as a comparator

Question 9

What are interventions for child aggression?

Answer 9

• Many risk factors could be helped
• Parental mental health
• Parenting: can identify those at risk, programs identify good parenting strategies and evidence in reducing child behaviour problems

Question 10

What are interventions for emotion recognition training?

Answer 10

• Training in emotion recognition
• Emotion recog improves with training
• Severity of crimes reduces 6 mo later in those who had training

Question 11

What is the example of improvements with attuned caregiving?

Answer 11

• Free-play during semi-structured interactions
• Through contingent vocalisation, appropriate attention focusing, timing paced to child’s interest and arousal, shared positive affect and appropriate level of stimulation
• Associated with alter executive functioning

Question 12

What are improvements to the system for the neurodiversity perspective?

Answer 12

• Introducing neurodiversity concepts in schools to teachers and pupils - holding pos attitude whilst recognising and supporting challenges
• LEANS: whole school approach to understand neurodiversity in primary schools
• Neurodiverse team for development

Question 13

How have policies around childcare changed?

Answer 13

• Staff-work ratios change
• Boost for budget for childcare

Question 14

What are real world applications?

Answer 14

• 30 million word gap
• Influences on practise
• Providence talks: programme combining coaching and data feedback
• Critiques of the 30 million word gap
• Shows importance of evaluation and continued research