Semester 1 Lecture 1 - Developmental Psychology and Research Methods Flashcards
What is Ontogenetic development?
The development of one individual throughout their life
What is microgenetic development?
Changes that occur over a very brief period of time
What are the ages we classify with the following categories in developmental psychology? Prenatal Infancy Preschool Childhood Adolescence Early Adulthood Middle Adulthood Late Adulthood
Conception to Birth Birth to 2 years 2 to 4 years 5 to 12 years 12 to 18 years 18 to 40 years 40 to 65 years 65 years and over
What are the three main ways we can track development?
Physical, Cognitive and Psychosocial Development
What are some quantitative ways we can track development?
vocabulary size, number of friendships, memory capacity
What are some qualitative ways we can track development?
changes in beliefs, ability, quality of friendships, etc.
What is continuous development?
continuous development suggest that development is gradual and comes in many small and continuous changes
What is discontinuous development?
development occurs in abrupt, rapid changes that resemble momentous occasions or events.
What are 4 themes of developmental psychology?
- It focuses a lot on nature vs nurture
- Early experience matters, and can affect later development, but children are fundementally resilient, so this can often not be the case.
- Children shape their own development, it is not just external factors.
Which ancient Greeks created the basis for developmental psychology?
Plato and Aristotle
They both felt that the future of societal welfare rested on the correct raising of children
What did Plato believe? (in relation to kids)
He believed children were born with innate knowledge and understanding
What did Aristotle believe? (in relation to kids)
He believed children’s knowledge and understanding came from their surroundings.
How did Charles Darwin study developmental psychology?
He observed his son’s emotional development (case study)
Who was Piaget?
Developmental psychology’s “founding father”- coined this as he was the first to study developmental psychology empirically and systematically
What are the four methods of study we use to study development?
cross sectional studies, microgenetic studies, longitudinal studies and experimental studies
What are cross sectional studies?
Studies on samples of different age groups, therefore showing how a factor changes and develops across age.
What are longitudinal studies?
Studies that follow one group of individuals over an extended period of time.
What are microgenetic studies?
They are a version of a longitudinal study where observed as they occur. This involves individual children, (all the same age while tested) being repeatedly tested over long periods of time. It can therefore help us understand if development is continuous or discontinuous.
What are some pros/cons of microgenetic studies?
They are intensive and very precise, must involve small samples and can be prone to practice effects
What are some pros/cons of longitudinal studies?
They are expensive to run and withdrawal rates can be quite high. The result can also be affected by practice effect (performing better on tests, not because they have developed/learned, but because of the repeated practice of the tests).
But it can look at change both in individuals and across groups.
What are some pros/cons of cross-sectional studies?
It is the least time consuming of all the study types.
It can’t look at how individual children develop, it is therefore nomothetic.
What is structured observation?
When behaviour is observed but in a lab where conditions can be manipulated to evoke a desired behaviour.
What are cognitive measures?
Tasks specifically desired to measure the process of interest (i.e. IQ tests or memory tasks)
What are psychophysical methods?
Methods to measure biological processes that can help us observe changes in perception and cognition i.e. eye tracking and pupil dilations
