Child Development Themes Theories and Methods 03 05 2012 Child Development a field of study that seeks to account for the gradual evolution of the child s cognitive social and other capacities first by describing changes in the child s observed behaviors and then by uncovering the processes and strategies that underlie these changes Maturation a genetic or biologically determined process of growth that unfolds over a period of time Themes of Development 1 Human Behavior i Nature vs Nurture Nature o John B Watson behaviorist who place his emphasis strongly on the environment Said by arranging the environment he could produce a genius or a criminal Nurture o Arnold Gesell psychologist who believed that the course of development was determined by biological factors It is the combination of both biological and environmental factors are what affect the child s behavior 2 i 3 i The pattern of development Continuous process where new events build on earlier experiences Development is a smooth and gradual accumulation of abilities most common belief ii Discontinuous process development occurs in steps or stages in which behaviors get reorganized into a new set of behaviors The individual vs contextual influences on development Confrontation with situational challenges or risks to healthy development Suffer permanent developmentally Seem to cope well but exhibit problems later on sleeper effect Exhibit resilience and are able to deal with the challenge 4 Theories develop theories help organize and integrate existing information into coherent interesting and plausible accounts of how children i Structural organismic theoretical approaches that describe psychological structures and processes that undergo qualitative or stage like changes over the course of development a Freud and Piaget Structuralism i Freud emotions and personality 1 Psychodynamic theory development occurs in discrete stages and is determined largely by biologically based drives shaped by encounters with the environment and through the interaction of the personality s three components ego rational thinking superego moral values id pleasure principle 2 Erik Erikson a Psychosocial Theory sees children developing through a series of sages largely through accomplishing tasks that involve them in interaction with their social environment ii Piaget thinking 1 Piagetian Theory sees the child as actively seeking new information and uses two basic principles of biology and biological change organization and adaptation ii Learning a Behaviorism theories of psychology must be based on observations of behavior rather than on speculations about motives or unobservable factors i Ivan Pavlov 1 Classical Conditioning two stimuli are repeatedly presented together until individuals learn to respond to the unfamiliar stimulus in the same way they respond to the familiar stimulus 2 Operant Conditioning depends on the consequences of behavior rewards increase the likelihood that a behavior will recur whereas punishment decreases that likelihood ii B F Skinner b Cognitive social learning theory stresses the importance of observation and imitation in the acquisition of new behaviors with learning mediated by cognitive processes i Albert Bandura showed the children exposed to aggressive behavior of another person were likely to imitate that behavior Children do not blindly imitate people they choose which actions they want to imitate attend retain reproduce motivate c Information processing approaches focus on the flow of information through the child s cognitive system and particularly on the specific operations the child performs between input stimulus and output response phases iii dynamic systems proposes that individuals develop and function within systems and that studies the relationships among individuals and seems and the properties by which these relationships operate iv Contextual a Sociocultural theory proposed by Lev Vygotsky that sees development as emerging from children s interactions with more skilled people and the institutions and tools provided by their culture b Bronfenbrenner s ecological theory i Ecological theory stresses the importance of understanding not only the relationship between organisms and various environmental systems but also the relations among such systems themselves ii Microsystem the context in which children live and interact with the people and institutions closest to them such as parents peers and school iii Mesosystem the interrelations among the components of the microsystem parents teachers school system iv Exosystem The collection of settings such as a parent s daily work that impinge on a child s development but in which the child does not play a direct role v Macrosystem the system that surrounds the other systems represents the values ideologies and laws of the society or culture vi Chronosystem the time based dimension that can alter the operation of all other systems in the model c Lifespan perspective a view of development as a process that continues throughout the life cycle from infancy through adulthood and old age i Age cohort people born within the same generation v Ethological and evolutionary views a Ethological theory a theory that holds that behavior must be viewed and understood as occurring in a particular context and as having adaptive or survival value i Basic method study children in their natural surroundings and develop detailed descriptions and classifications of behavior b Evolutionary developmental psychology an approach that holds that critical components of psychological functioning reflect evolutionary changes and are critical to the survival of the species i Main question When and how do these cognitive capabilities emerge The behaviors children observe and learn are not just mindlessly imitate they contain the meaning or intention of the human action Research Methods in Child Psychology Scientific Method the use of measureable and replicable techniques in framing hypotheses and collecting and analyzing data to test a theory s usefulness 1 Selecting A Sample a Representativeness of a sample the degree to which a sample actually possesses the characteristics of the larger population it represents b Another Approach The National Survey a very large nationally representative group of people are selected for a particular study 2 Methods of Gathering Data About Children a Children s self reports information that people provide about themselves either in a direct interview