Session One (What is Development?)

Question 1

In psychology, what is development?

Answer 1

Age-related changes in behaviour, thinking, emotion and personality.
Now seen as a lifelong, multi-dimensional, multi-directional, interactive process that is culturally and historically embedded.

Question 2

What are the dimensions of human development?

Answer 2

• Physical (growth, changes in motor development, senses and bodily systems)
• Cognitive (intellectual processes; thinking, learning, remembering, judging, communicating)
• Personal (concept of self, attachement, love)
• Social (interpersonal relationships with the family, peers and the community at large)
• Others (spiritual? career?)

Question 3

Broadly, what is the central debate in regards to human development?

Answer 3

Nature vs Nurture.

How much does each influence intelligence, personality, success…

Question 4

Who is one of the big advocates of “Nurture” in psychology? (Behaviourist Approach)

Answer 4

Watson’s Behaviourist Approach: Extreme view of human plasticity, believed a developing child is extremely malleable and susceptible to the effects of environmental influences.

Roots of this line of thinking can be seen in early philosophy e.g. John Locke’s Tabula Rasa.

Question 5

Who are some of the big advocates of “Nature” in psychology? (Maturational Approach)

Answer 5

Gessel: Time-locked processes of biological growth are particularly important for the appearance of motor and perceptual abilities.

McGraw: Found that studies with identical twins revealed similar motor development regardless of practice.

Both rooted in biology, focus very much on motor development.

Question 6

What are some limitations to study in the Nature vs Nurture debate?

Answer 6

• Can’t control variables
• Require large sample sizes
• Interaction between genes and environment is very complex, but genetic influence clear on psychological traits e.g. intelligence, personality and mental illness.

Question 7

What types of studies are useful for solving the limitations of Nature vs Nurture?

Answer 7

• Adoption studies
• Twin studies
• Animal studies
• Genetic studies

Question 8

What are the two main forms of Genetic Studies and what have they shown?

Answer 8

• GCTA (Genome-wide Complex Trait Analyses); Intelligence has a genetic basis of around 29%, which has effects on SES (18%) and Education (21%). However this leaves room for a substantial environmental effect.
• GWAS (Genome-Wide Association Studies); Powerful tool for investigating the link between genetic RFs and common diseases. Showed a link between genetics and common behavioural problems (e.g. anxiety, depression) existed across the lifespan, but were far more prominent in childhood (0.7) than in adulthood (0.4).

Question 9

What is the role of Deliberate Practice within the Nature vs Nurture debate?

Answer 9

Studies have shown deliberate practice (engagement in an activity aimed to specifically improve performance) can explain some variance in performance:

• 26% in games
• 21% in music
• 18% in sport
• 4% in education

However this is clearly not the only factor.

Question 10

What are Vulnerabilities and Resilience in regards to a child’s development?

Answer 10

Individual qualities of a child, such as IQ, strength of maternal attachment and a sense of humour that interact with a child’s environment to influence their development.

Essentially the same environment can affect different kids in different ways based on how vulnerable or resilient they are.

Question 11

Other than Vulnerability, Resilience, Genetics and Environment, what can have a significant impact on a child’s development?

Answer 11

Studies have shown that both the gender of the child and the culture they are brought up in can have an influence.

Question 12

What is “Stability Orientation”

Answer 12

Things that stay consistent, rather than change, as a child develops.

Big 5 Factors = C.A.N.O.E = Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness (to experience) and Extraversion.

Studies such as Atchley (1989) suggest these factors remain reasonably stable in spite of significant external and internal discontinuity.

Question 13

What is “Optimum Continuity”?

Answer 13

Pace and degree of change in line with a person’s coping capacity i.e. not so much life becomes unpredictable and uncomfortable, not so little life becomes dull and boring.

Question 14

What did Baltes believe about development and what theory did he develop?

Answer 14

• He believed that important changes occur in each period of development, interpreted in context of culture or subculture.
• A person is plastic and adaptable at all ages
• A person will develop strategies to maximise gains and compensate for losses at all stages.
• He especially believed that adults still experience major life changes that need to be adapted to (namely parenthood, retirement and end of life)

He combined this into his SOC theory.

Question 15

What is Baltes’ SOC theory.

Answer 15

Selective Optimisation with Compensation, a developmental process that describes the relation between age-related changes within individuals and changes in behavioural and cognitive styles. As we age, we come across new challenges that we respond to by carefully Selecting, Optimising and Compensating various behaviours (e.g. Rubenstein example).

Question 16

What are some well-known theories of development?

Answer 16

• Psychoanalytical theories (psychosexual, psychosocial, attachment, humanistic)
• Learning theories (classical, operant, modelling)
• Cognitive theories (Piaget)

Question 17

Describe briefly the psychoanalytic theory of development?

Answer 17

Development change happens because of internal drives and emotions and their influence on behaviour.

Question 18

Describe briefly the learning theory of development?

Answer 18

Development results from accumulation of experiences. More optimistic about the possibility of change than most theories.

Question 19

How did Freud describe development?

Answer 19

He described it in terms of 5 psychosexual stages, each distinguished by their underlying mode of gratification (Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency and Genital).
Each change is marked by particular challenges and conflicts.

Question 20

What did Freud claim about (and what has research shown about) hidden childhood memories?

Answer 20

Freud claimed that hidden or repressed memories of traumatic events are important in the understanding of a person’s development.

Research has been mixed. Some studies show people do repress childhood trauma, but it has also been shown that interviewing people about this can also create false memories of events that never happened.

Question 21

What theory did Erikson develop around development?

Answer 21

Psychosocial:

• Development is influenced by common cultural demands and internal drives.
• 8 stages of development, which are driven by changes in social demands that accompany changes in age.
• Each stage forces us to confront new challenges and encounter new crises.
• The success in any stage is based on successful resolution of the last stage.
• IMPORTANTLY: a healthy development requires a favourable ratio of positive to negative experiences.

Question 22

Briefly describe the humanistic model of development (one of the psychoanalytic models)?

Answer 22

The humanistic/existential perspective focuses on insight into motivation and needs of people.

It places greater emphasis on the person’s freedom of choice, and on a positive drive for self-actualisation.

Question 23

What are the main weaknesses of the psychoanalytic models?

Answer 23

• Lack of empirical evidence
• Technically unscientific, cannot be proven or disproven.
• Very based in the time they were written, now seem dated to us.

Question 24

What are the behavioural models of conditioning?

Answer 24

• Classical
• Operant
• Modelling

Question 25

What are the 3 main ways babies learn?

Answer 25

• Through CONDITIONING (operant and classical)
• By HABITUATION and DISHABITUATION (i.e. learn to recognise familiar things)
• SCHEMATIC learning (organising experiences into expectancies or known combinations)

Question 26

The classical conditioning theory of learning has been applied clinically into “Systemic Desensitization”. Briefly describe SD?

Answer 26

Rawlins used SD to treat school refusals:

• Occurs when kids feel anxious in school settings.
• SD taught kids relaxation strategies to use.
• Children then learned how to regulate their anxiety response leading towards school participation.
• Gradually learn to associate going to school with the relaxation responses rather than the anxiety ones.

Question 27

How does operant conditioning work and how has it been used clinically?

Answer 27

Behaviours have consequences; either positive or negative reinforcement.
Behaviour can be shaped using these reinforcements. Lovaas used this technique very successfully with autistic children.

Question 28

Briefly describe Bandura’s Modeling theory?

Answer 28

• Social-cognitive theory, states learning can occur in absence of direct personal reinforcement. Modelling involves learning by watching the behaviour of others, and either imitating or avoiding that behaviour based on what happens to the model.
• Importantly: what the observer learns is influenced by own goals, expectations, internal standards and judgements.
• Learning from model is influenced by perceived similarity to model, and is not limited to overt behaviour.

Question 29

What are Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development?

Answer 29

• Sensorimotor (0-2 years, child interacts with environment by manipulating objects)
• Pre-operational (2-6/7, child can reason about simple problems with only one salient feature, reasoning is dominated by perception)
• Concrete operations (6/7-11/12, Reasoning can involve more than one salient feature, logical reasoning can only be applied to objects that are real or can be seen)
• Formal operations (11/12 upwards, individuals can think logically about POTENTIAL events and ABSTRACT ideas)

Question 30

Briefly outline Vygotsky’s theory of development?

Answer 30

• Development is based on social interaction rather than private exploration
• Describes “Scaffolding”, the way a child’s learning is structured by the adults around them.
• Also emphasises the importance of a “Zone of Proximal Development”, a set of tasks that are too hard for the child to perform alone but that can be managed with guidance from an adult.

Question 31

What are the 4 main types of study used in psychology and what are their individual limitations?

Answer 31

• Case-Studies/Naturalistic Observations (lack of control, long term therefore issues with attrition)
• Cross-Sectional Design (different generations will have unique experiences which influence the study)
• Longitudinal Design (practice or testing effects, study attrition causing a non-representative sample)
• Sequential Design (combine groups from at least two cohorts followed by a longitudinal study, both ageing and cohort effects are possible. allows for comparison of cohorts while incorporating some degree of individual difference)