Chapter 1: An introduction to Child DevelopmentWhy Study Child Development?Gain insight into human natureHelp raise childrenHistorical Foundations and TheoriesHistorical FoundationEarly philosophers- Plato and AristotleBelieved long-term welfare of society depended on children’s being raised properlyThey differed in their opinions and approachesOrigins of knowledgePlato- innate knowledgeAristotle- learn from experienceChild raisingPlato- self-control/disciplineAristotle- raising a child should be tailored to the individualLater Philosophers- John Locke and Jean-Jaques RousseauFocused on how parents and society could promote child developmentDiffered in beliefs about…Inherent nature of childrenApproaches to instructionRousseau- children are innately good and don't need much disciplineChildren don't need formal instruction until later in lifeLocke- the mind is a blank slate and we learn from experiencesResearch Based ApproachThe result of 2 converging forcesSocial reform movementsCharles Darwin’s theory of evolutionWanted people to understand the nature of human development“Ontogeny recapulates phylogeny”Embryos are similar through time and developing into adults with the development of their ancestorsFormal Field of InquiryLate 19th/Early 20th century- child development emerged as a formal field of inquiryEarly AssessmentG. Stanley HallPresented questionnaires to large numbers of parents, teachers and children in order to detail numerous aspects of development (social relationships, physical and psychological changes)Alfred Binet-First to investigate differences among children of the same ageInvented first practical intelligence testEarly evidence-based theoriesSigmund Freud- psychoanalytic theory and how biological drives are important on developmentJohn Watson- idea that everything can be learned through behavioral conditioning (like Aristotle and Locke)We start with nothing and everything is learned and shaped by the environment9 Fundamental Questions/Theories1. How do nature and nurture together shape development?Nature (biological endowment; genes we receive from our parents)Nurture (environments that influence our development; both social and physical)Ex: Autism/schizophreniaMost children with parents with schizophrenia don’t usually develop the disease, but are more likely toPhenylketonuria (PKU)Developmental psychologists now recognize that every characteristic we possess is created through the joint workings of nature and nurtureNeed to figure out the relative role of each and their interaction2. How do children shape their own development?All children’s actions contribute to their own developmentThese contributions increase with ageEx: Infancy adolescenceShape own development by what they choose to pay attention to3. In what ways is development continuous and in what ways is it discontinuous?Continuous- process of small changesDiscontinuous- sudden changesStage Theories- propose that development occurs in a progression of age-related, sudden, qualitative shifts that affect a child’s thinking or behavior in broadly unified ways and move the child from one way of experiencing the world to another wayEx: Piaget’s theory of cognitive development (development of thinking and reasoning;Conservative tasks- children can learn to focus on more than one task as they get olderDepending on how it is viewed, changes in height can be viewed as either continuous or discontinuousContinuous- examining height at yearly intervals from birth to 18 yearsDiscontinuous- examining changes in height from one year to the next4. How does change occur?Interactions between genes, brain structures, processes, and experiences/environment how, together, these affect developmentDarwininan Influence:Variation: differences in thought and behavior within/among individualsSelection: survival and reproduction of well adapted variationsEx: strategies for solving single-digit addition problems5. How does the sociocultural context influence development?Sociocultural context: physical, social, cultural, economic, and historical circumstances that make up any child’s environmentcontexts differ within and between culturesEx: infants sleeping arrangements in US vs in Mayan cultureUS is more of an independent culture where infants slept on their own earlier in lifeLanguage developmentCulture affects how you acquire certain aspects of language6. How do children become so different from each other?Individual differences arise from many sourcesGenetic makeupTheir treatment by other peopleTheir subjective reactions to other people’s treatment of themHow children choose their environmentsBowlby’s model of developmental pathwaysFor development to be successive, an early base of good upbringing (pathways) is necessary7. How can research promote children’s well-being?Child-development research yields practical benefits in diagnosing children’s problems and in helping children to overcome themMethods to determine early vision problemsPreferential learning- allows infant’s behavior to speak for them (seeing if a baby prefers to look at a simple pattern rather than a sold gray fieldCarol DweckDeveloped theory about people’s belief’s about intelligence and how this affects their learningSome believe that intelligence can vary and is not a fixed thing, and these people react to failure in more effective waysdevelop persistenceSome people believe that intelligence is a fixed thing and these people tend to give up when they fail8. How do vulnerabilities and resilience contribute to development?Your experiences and paths you take in life contribute to developmentPlasticity the more plastic/malleable, the more influenced you are to the environmentDifferential susceptibility- some people are better able to handle influences of the environment9. The importance of timingVisionLanguage- much harder to learn later in lifeAttachment- early experience influences how we form later relationshipsBrain damage- if you have damage earlier, it is easier to recover than if you have damage later in lifeEx: studies on Romanian orphanagesDid not have social developmentThose moved out before 1st year of life were better off than those who lived there longer than 1st yearWerner’s StudyUnique study of 698 children born on the Hawaiian island of KauaiExamined the children’s birth histories and collected data on multiple aspects of their lives over a period of more than 30 yearsResults indicated that
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