Child Psychology DEP3103 PDB A0102 Tuesday August 30 Chapter 1 Child Development a field devoted to understanding consistency and change from conception through adolescence o From egg and sperm to zygote to fetus Physical development Cognitive development o Memory o Understanding Social emotional o Interactions with others o How we feel about things Illustrates and contrasts the two extremes of environments Video about children 1 5 Contrasts o Physical Sleep Hunger Activity playing o Cognitive Reading or not Counting game or not o Social Emotional Spending time with parents Security vs insecurity Staying with aunt Doesn t know when dad will come home A field devoted to understanding constancy and change from conception through 9 1 11 What is Child Development adolescence Part of developmental science field o Field covers lifespan Periods of Development Prenatal o Conception to birth o Most rapid time of change in lifespan most change occurs we go form a one celled organism to a prenatal baby Infancy and Toddlerhood o Birth to 2 years o Also a huge amount of change especially in skills such as talking walking o 6 11 o Expectations for kids across cultures asked to attend school more formally running etc Early Childhood o 2 6 o Thought and language expand rapidly o Establish ties with peers friends Middle Childhood Adolescence o 11 18 o Puberty sexual maturity o Autonomy leaving parents house Autonomy independence self sufficiency Emerging Adulthood o 18 25 years o Newer age chunk studied we won t go over it Domains of Development Physical o Body size o Proportions o Functioning of body systems o Perceptual and motor capacities o Physical health Cognitive o Attention o Memory o Knowledge o Problem solving o Imagination o Creativity o Language Emotional and Social o Self understanding o Interpersonal skills o Friendships o Intimate relationships o Moral reasoning and behavior o Describes o Explains o Predicts Basic Issues in Development of Theories Theory An orderly integrated evidence based set of statements that descries explains and predicts behavior Organizational frame work 1 Continuous or discontinuous o Gradual accumulation of skills on a hill o Distinct stages with distinct skills learned step ladder changes are abrupt o Continuous Gradual accumulation of skills on a hill Starfish gets bigger and bigger A tree essentially just gets bigger o Discontinuous Distinct stages with distinct skills learned step ladder Changes are abrupt Mayfly larvae pupa then adult 3 distinct stages 2 One course of development or many o Stage Theorists one say Everyone goes through stages at the same time and everyone must go through them Everybody develops the same You have to go through one stage to get to the next stage o Contemporary Theorists many say There are many courses of development Development can differ from person to person Influence by contexts of development Unique combinations result in different paths of development o Personal contexts Heredity and biological makeup o Environmental contexts Immediate home school neighborhood Macro community resources historical time period societal values culture 3 Nature or Nurture o Speaks to the underlying causes of development o Nature o Nurture Based on genetic inheritance Theories that stress Nature emphasize stability Physical and social world environments Theories that stress Nurture emphasize change Historically people have stressed extremes to either side but modern psychologists believe that both have influence and lean to one side or the other Historical Views of Childhood Medieval Times o Childhood viewed as a separate period of life o Age 7 considered age of reason and expected to work alongside adults The Reformation o Puritans think of the Scarlet Letter o Children were seen as innately evil by some original sin o Discipline was harsh Transition to Modern Thinking o 17th and 18th Century philosophers o Locke Tabula Rasa Blank Slate Kids came out clean and we could shape them Focus on role of environment and experience nurture Social approval disapproval is powerful shapers of behavior Criminals were shaped by his her experiences o Rousseau 1712 1778 Thought that all children were inherently good angels Would naturally develop into moral adults Children mapped by nature born good and stay that way nature Major contribution Introduced the idea of stages and maturation o Darwin Theory of Evolution Documented Behavior Kept a baby biography of infant son o Hall Credited with founding child development as an academic discipline Launched the normative approach typical development Also Gesell his student Lots and lots of children studied what is average normal o Rather than the study of one child Pioneers in Study of Child Development Binet and Simon o Developed first standardized intelligence testing to help identify academically at risk school children in France o What is the normal intelligence and who falls below that standard Baldwin o Gave nature and nurture equal importance and noted that they were interdependent not just one of the other Mid 20th Century Theories Mid 1900s Child development expanded into a legitimate discipline o Society for Research in Child Development first organization Theories emerged with contrasting emphases o Inner thoughts and feelings European trend o Scientific precision and observable behavior emphasis in North America Psychoanalytic Perspective o Emphasizes the unique history of each child o Focus on emotional and social development and origins of personality traits o Series of Stages don t memorize actual stages in book waste of time not in test o Foci of Stages Conflict between biological drives and social expectation How individual decisions resolves determine behavior Sigmund Freud how are these two similar and different Emphasized psychosexual stages associated with changing focus of sex drive Erik Erikson Emphasized psychosocial stages associated with tasks or crises shaped by social and cultural factors Erikson was one of the first to recognize the lifespan nature of development that development continues throughout the lifespan doesn t just stop at adulthood like Freud s model o Criticisms Vague Difficult or impossible to test empirically partially because the theories were too vague so very difficult to support Limited to clinical case studies only about ONE person o Erikson s broad stages do remain relevant today Behaviorism and Social Learning Theory o Americans Emphasis on directly
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