Chapter 1: Introduction to Child DevelopmentWhat 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 Behavior2. Predict Behavior3. Determine the causes of behavior 4. Explanation of Behavior - Reason 1: Raising Children o Assist parents and teachers in meeting the challenges of rearing and educating children  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 Natureo Provides important insights into some of the most intriguing questions regarding human natureMethods For Studying Child Development - Scientific Method: A systematic method of answering research questions that involves: 1. Choosing a question2. Formulating a hypothesis3. Testing a hypothesis4. Gathering empirical evidence5. Drawing a conclusiono 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 Interrater Reliability: The amount of agreement in the observations of different raters who witness the same behavior Test-Retest Reliability: Attained when measurement of performance are similar on two or more occasions.o Validity: Degree to which a test or experiment measure what is intended to measure. Research strives for 3 types of Validity:  Internal Validity: The degree to which effects observed with in experiments can be attributed to the variable that the researcher intentionally manipulated External Validity: The degree to which results can be operationalized beyond the particulars of the research Construct Validity: Determines how closely our operational definitions fit our variable- Contexts for Gathering Data about Children: o Interviews  Structured Interview: All participants are asked to answer the same questions Semi-structured Interview: Questions are adjusted in accordance with the answers the interviewee provides Strengths: Often yield a great deal of data quickly and can provide in-depthinfo about individual children Limitations: The answers to the interview questions can be biasedo Naturalistic Observation: Used when the primary goal of research is to describe how children behave in their usual environments Strengths: Provides rich info. About everyday interactions Limitations: It is often hard to know which dimensions influenced the behavior of interest. (many behaviors occur occasionally in everyday environment)o Structured Observation: Involves presenting an identical situation to a number ofchildren and recording each child’s behaviors Strengths: Enables us to direct comparisons of different children’s behavior and generality of behavior across different tasks Limitations: Doesn’t provide as much info about children’s subjective experiences (as interviews do) and doesn’t provide as natural a situation (as naturalistic obs. Does)- Designs for Examining Developmento Correlational Designs: The primary goal is to determine how variables are relatedto one another (negative, positive, strong, weak)o Experiment Designs: Allow inferences about cause and effect. Relies on random assignment, a procedure in which each child has an equal chance of being assigned to any group within an experiment  Experimental Control: The ability of the researcher to determine the experiences that children have during the course of an experiment- Experimental group: group receives experience of interest aka. The interdependent variable- Control group: Do not receive this experience- Dependent variable: behavior that is hypothesized to be affected by independent variableo Cross Sectional: Kids of different ages are compared on a given behavior or characteristic over a short period of timeo Longitudinal: The same children are studied twice or more over a period of timeo Microgenetic Designs: Used to provide an in-depth depiction of processes that produce change.  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 Causationo Correlation: The association between two variables  The strength of a correlation is measured by a statistic called the correlation coefficiento Direction-of-causation problem: It is not possible to tell from a correlation which variable is the cause an which is the effectso Third Variable Problem: A correlation between two variables may arise from both being influenced by some third variable Confounding Variable: A variable not controlled in a research study- Ethical Issues in Child Development Research: Researchers have a vital responsibilityto 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: Asses the benefits and risks o Informed Consent: PS must know when they are actively involved in research andall the potential risks o Parents consent, child’s agreemento Debriefing: Reveal the purpose of the study, deal with any potential harm o Consider Applications: Are there alternative ways of gathering this data that minimize risks? What is the significance of potential findings? Chapter 3: Biological FoundationsModel Of Interaction: The Key Elements: - Genotype: The genetic material an individual inherits- Phenotype: the observable expression of the genotype, including body characteristics and behavior- Environment: Includes every aspect of the individual and his/her surroundings, other genes Mechanisms Contributing to Genetic Diversity - Sex Chromosomes: Females have 2 X