8 27 2015 Child development is understanding the constancy and change from conception to adolescence It is an area within developmental science Domains of development These all influence each other Cognitive Physical Emotional Social Periods of development Prenatal Conception to Birth Infancy and Toddlerhood Birth to 2 years Early Childhood 2 6 years Middle Childhood 6 11 years Adolescence 11 18 years Emerging Adulthood 18 25 years A theory is an orderly integrated and evidence based set of statements that describes explains and predicts behaviors Basic issues in development Continuous gradually vs discontinuous distinct stages development One course of development or many Does everyone reach milestones at the same time or in the same way What factors affect development Nutrition Parents social development Economic status Nature or Nurture Nature inborn biological givens based on genetic inheritance Nurture physical and social world influence biological and psychological development before and after birth Stability vs Plasticity Stability usually associated with heredity Lifelong characteristics Early experiences establish patterns Plasticity Responsive to experience There are different patterns of developmental growth Context of development Unique combination of personal and environmental circumstances this results in different developmental paths Factors Heredity Biological make up Environment Circumstances A Balanced View Both continuous and discontinuous changes occur Development has unique features and universal features Heredity and environment are interwoven 3 Grand Theories of Development Psychoanalytic Theory Emotions Irrational unconscious desires and motives underlies behaviors They often develop in childhood or social changes psychological crises not sexual urges Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson Behaviorism Actions Classical conditioning Operant conditioning reinforcers and punishments Social learning modeling and efficiency Cognitive Theory Ideas Beliefs Stages of cognitive development Sensorimotor 0 2yrs Preoperational 2 7yrs Concrete operational 7 11 Formal operational 11 Ethology Concerned with the adaptive value of behavior Sensitive Period Optimal time for capacities to emerge Especially responsive to the environment Development is hard to induce later on Boundaries for sensitive period aren t as defined as they are for a critical period Evolutionary Developmental Psychology Studies the adaptive values of human competencies Cognitive emotional social How they change with age What behaviors are and aren t adaptive Complete organism environment system Vygotsky s sociocultural theory Transformation of culture to a new generation Beliefs customs skills Cognitive development is a socially mediated process Ecological Systems Theory Child develops within a complex system of relationships Simple components Nonlinear interactions No central control Emergent behaviors Hierarchical organization Information processing Dynamics Evolution and learning Chronosystem CH 2 Research Strategies Research in Developmental Psych Start with empirical evidence evidence based on observation experimentation or experience not a theory Then you build a theory by looking for more empirical evidence Research cycle Theory Research Questions Research Strategie Hypothesis Data Theory etc Quantitative vs Qualitative Quantitative Develops and employs mathematical models The sample is usually large and represents the populations and statistical analysis is usually used Qualitative Understanding the underlying motives reasons The samples are small and chosen deliberately The analysis is not statistical Observational Research A method of testing a hypothesis by unintrusively observing and recording their behavior Systematically Quantitative Naturalistic Structured Subjectively Qualitative Ethnography Descriptive qualitative technique to understand a culture or social group Researcher lives in community and observes the subjects for extended periods of time Tries to capture unique values and social processes Limitations of Observational Research Observer bias observer records what they expect to see instead of what they really see It s better to use those with no knowledge of the hypothesis Observer influence participants may react in unnatural ways Clinical Interviews of view Flexible conversational style to probe for the participants point Limitations The participant may not accurately express themselves and they may not recall an event correctly The flexibility will make the response vary Structured Interviews and Questionnaires Each participant is asked the same question in the same way which eliminates interviewer bias Limitations Not as in depth and some people may answer in a socially desirable way Neurobiological Methods Measures the relationship between nervous system processes and behaviors This allows us to infer perceptions emotions and cognitive abilities Measures of autonomic nervous system activities that are sensitive to psychological state Blood pressure heart rate pupils stress hormones Methods of Measuring Brain Function EEG ERP fMRI PET NIRS Eye Tracking Looking while listening Case Study A large amount of information is gathered on one subject Usually used when a person has an unusual condition Reliability vs Validity Reliability is the consistency and repeatability of a measure Test Retest Inter rater Validity is how accurately evidence captures the characteristics that the researcher is trying to prove Internal Study conditions External Generalizability Correlations the closer to 0 the weaker Correlation does not equal Causation Experimental Design Correlation Coefficients 1 to 1 the closer to either end the stronger Permits inference about cause and effect Independent variables Manipulated variable Supposed to cause the other variable to change Dependent variables Measured not manipulated Should be influence by the other variable Confounding variables cause an alternate explanation variables that the researcher did not control for We need to control for them in order to have a causal link Random assignment of groups helps control for them Designs for Studying Development Longitudinal Same participants studied at different ages Advantages Allows for study of common patterns and individual differences in development Also allows the study of relationships between early and later life events and behaviors Disadvantages Biased sampling Selective attrition Practice and cohort effects
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