PSYC 307 Developmental Psychology Heather Bortfeld PSYC 255 Tuesday Thursday 12 1 hbortfeld psych tamu edu http www tamu edu classes psyc bortfeld Teaching Assistant Eswen Fava PSYC 413 eswen mac com Required reading Discovering the Life Span Robert S Feldman 2009 Prentice Hall 1 22 2009 z 1 Why Study Developmental Psychology 1 22 2009 Developmental Psychology Lecture1 2 1 Reason 1 Raising Children z Knowledge of child development can help parents and teachers meet the challenges of rearing and educating children For example researchers have identified effective approaches that parents and other caregivers can successfully use in helping children manage anger and other negative emotions 1 22 2009 3 Reason 2 Choosing Social Policies z Knowledge of child development permits informed decisions about social policy questions that affect children For example psychological research on children s responses to leading interview questions can help courts obtain more accurate testimonies from preschool children 1 22 2009 Developmental Psychology Lecture1 4 2 Reason 3 Understanding Human Nature z Child development research provides important insights into some of the most intriguing questions regarding human nature such as the existence of innate concepts and the relationship between early and later experiences Recent investigations of development among children adopted from inadequate orphanages in Romania supports the principle that the timing of experiences often influences their effects 1 22 2009 5 1 22 2009 6 Developmental Psychology Lecture1 3 Historical Foundations Early Philosophers z Provided enduring insights about critical issues in childrearing even though their methods were unscientific Both Plato and Aristotle believed that the long term welfare of society depended on raising children properly but they differed in their approaches 1 22 2009 7 Historical Foundations Plato vs Aristotle Plato emphasized self control and discipline z Aristotle was concerned with fitting child rearing to the needs of the individual child z Plato believed that children are born with innate knowledge z Aristotle believed that knowledge comes from experience z 1 22 2009 Developmental Psychology Lecture1 8 4 Historical Foundations Later Philosophers z The English philosopher John Locke like Aristotle saw the child as a tabula rasa and advocated first instilling discipline then gradually increasing the child s freedom z Jean Jacques Rousseau the French philosopher argued that parents and society should give the child maximum freedom from the beginning 1 22 2009 9 Historical Foundations Research Based Approach z Emerged in the nineteenth century in part as a result of two converging forces 1 Social reform movements established a research conducted for the benefit of children provided some of the earliest descriptions of the adverse effects that harsh environments can have on child development 1 22 2009 Developmental Psychology Lecture1 10 5 Historical Foundations Research Based Approach z Emerged in the nineteenth century in part as a result of two converging forces 2 Charles Darwin s 1809 1882 theory of evolution inspired research in child development in order to gain insights into the nature of the human species 1 22 2009 11 1 22 2009 12 Developmental Psychology Lecture1 6 Historical Foundations Formal Field of Inquiry z Child development emerged as a formal field of inquiry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries z In particular Sigmund Freud and John Watson formulated influential theories of development during this period 1 22 2009 13 Historical Foundations Psychodynamic Approach z Freud concluded that biological drives especially sexual ones exerted a crucial influence on development 1 22 2009 Developmental Psychology Lecture1 14 7 1 22 2009 15 Historical Foundations Behavioral Approach z Holds that the key to understanding development are observable behavior and environmental stimuli If we know the stimuli we can predict the behavior 1 22 2009 Developmental Psychology Lecture1 16 8 Flavors of behaviorism z Classical behaviorism Watson s behaviorism Objective study of behavior No mental life no internal states thought is covert speech z Radical Skinner s behaviorism Considered radical since it expands behavioral principles to processes within the organism in contrast to methodological behaviorism Not mechanistic or reductionist rather hypothetical mentalistic internal states are not considered causes of behavior phenomena must be observable at least to the individual experiencing them 1 22 2009 17 Historical Landmarks in Behaviorism z John Watson 1878 1958 Behaviorism 1 22 2009 Developmental Psychology Lecture1 18 9 Historical Landmarks in Behaviorism z John Watson 1878 1958 Behaviorism Watson argued that children s behavior arises largely from the rewards and punishments that follow particular behaviors Although the research methods on which these theories were based were limited the theories were better grounded in research and inspired more sophisticated thinking than their predecessors 1 22 2009 19 Historical Landmarks in Behaviorism z John Watson 1878 1958 Behaviorism Give me a dozen healthy infants well formed and my own specified world to bring them up in and I ll gaurantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select doctor lawyer artist merchant chief and yes even beggarman and theif regardless of his talents penchants tendencies abilities Watson 1925 1 22 2009 Developmental Psychology Lecture1 20 10 Historical Landmarks in Behaviorism z B F Skinner 1904 1990 Radical Behaviorism Departs from methodological behaviorism most notably in accepting treatment of feelings states of mind and introspection as existent and scientifically analyzable 1 22 2009 21 Historical Landmarks in Behaviorism z B F Skinner 1904 1990 Radical Behaviorism Departs from methodological behaviorism most notably in accepting treatment of feelings states of mind and introspection as existent and scientifically analyzable 1 22 2009 Was challenged during a casual discussion at Harvard to provide an account of a randomly provided piece of verbal behavior Skinner set about attempting to extend his then new functional inductive approach to the complexity of human verbal behavior Developed over two decades his work appeared as the culmination of the William James lectures in the famous book Verbal Behavior Developmental Psychology Lecture1 22 11 Historical Landmarks in
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