Chapter 1 Introduction to Child Development What is Child Development Child Development A field study that tries to understand the change in appearance and growth of children s biological structures physiological traits and behavior cognition and ways of adapting to the demands of life overtime A Child Parental development through adolescence Why Study Child Developments Goals of Psychology 1 Describe Behavior 2 Predict Behavior 3 Determine the causes of behavior 4 Explanation of Behavior Reason 1 Raising Children children o Assist parents and teachers in meeting the challenges of rearing and educating What are the best practices for caring for a newborn Helping children manage anger and negative emotions How to treat and decrease childhood obesity How to help dyslexia Reason 2 Choosing Social Policies o Permits informed decision about social policy questions that affect children Reason 3 Understanding Human Nature o Provides important insights into some of the most intriguing questions regarding human nature Methods For Studying Child Development Scientific Method A systematic method of answering research questions that involves 1 Choosing a question 2 Formulating a hypothesis 3 Testing a hypothesis 4 Gathering empirical evidence 5 Drawing a conclusion o Variables Any event situation behavior or individual characteristics that varies Abstract concepts that need to be put into concrete terms Operational Definition Set of procedures to measure a variable o Consistency or stability of a measurement of a variable The amount of agreement in the observations of Interrater Reliability different raters who witness the same behavior similar on two or more occasions Test Retest Reliability Attained when measurement of performance are o Validity Degree to which a test or experiment measure what is intended to measure Research strives for 3 types of Validity The degree to which effects observed with in Internal Validity experiments can be attributed to the variable that the researcher intentionally manipulated beyond the particulars of the research The degree to which results can be operationalized External Validity Construct Validity our variable Determines how closely our operational definitions fit Contexts for Gathering Data about Children o Interviews Structured Interview questions Semi structured Interview answers the interviewee provides Strengths info about individual children All participants are asked to answer the same Questions are adjusted in accordance with the Often yield a great deal of data quickly and can provide in depth Limitations o Naturalistic Observation how children behave in their usual environments The answers to the interview questions can be biased Used when the primary goal of research is to describe Provides rich info About everyday interactions Strengths Limitations It is often hard to know which dimensions influenced the behavior of interest many behaviors occur occasionally in everyday environment o Structured Observation children and recording each child s behaviors Involves presenting an identical situation to a number of Enables us to direct comparisons of different children s Strengths behavior and generality of behavior across different tasks experiences as interviews do and doesn t provide as natural a situation as naturalistic obs Does Designs for Examining Development Doesn t provide as much info about children s subjective Limitations o Correlational Designs The primary goal is to determine how variables are related to one another negative positive strong weak assignment a procedure in which each child has an equal chance of being assigned to any group within an experiment Allow inferences about cause and effect Relies on random o Experiment Designs Experimental Control experiences that children have during the course of an experiment The ability of the researcher to determine the group receives experience of interest aka The Experimental group interdependent variable Control group Dependent variable independent variable Do not receive this experience behavior that is hypothesized to be affected by o Cross Sectional characteristic over a short period of time Kids of different ages are compared on a given behavior or o Longitudinal The same children are studied twice or more over a period of time o Microgenetic Designs produce change Used to provide an in depth depiction of processes that Kids who are thought to be on the verge of an important developmental change are provided with heightened exposure to the type of experience that is believed to produce the change and are studied intensely while their behavior is in transition Correlation and Causation o Correlation The association between two variables The strength of a correlation is measured by a statistic called the correlation coefficient o Direction of causation problem variable is the cause an which is the effects both being influenced by some third variable o Third Variable Problem It is not possible to tell from a correlation which A correlation between two variables may arise from Confounding Variable A variable not controlled in a research study Ethical Issues in Child Development Research Researchers have a vital responsibility to anticipate potential risks that the children in their studies may encounter to minimize such risks and to make sure that the research outweigh the potential harm important with minors o Non harmful Procedure o Informed Consent all the potential risks Asses the benefits and risks PS must know when they are actively involved in research and o Parents consent child s agreement o Debriefing o Consider Applications minimize risks What is the significance of potential findings Reveal the purpose of the study deal with any potential harm Are there alternative ways of gathering this data that Chapter 3 Biological Foundations Model Of Interaction The Key Elements Genotype The genetic material an individual inherits Phenotype the observable expression of the genotype including body characteristics Environment Includes every aspect of the individual and his her surroundings other and behavior genes Mechanisms Contributing to Genetic Diversity Sex Chromosomes Females have 2 X chromosomes in the 23rd pair whereas males have an X and a Y chromosome Mutations Change sin sections of DNA caused by random or environmental factors Random Assortment The chance shuffling of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in the sperm Crossing Over The process by which sections of DNA switch from