Child Psychology 560 Concluding Issues 03 04 2014 Why studying development matters Developmental Psychology What is normal depends upon developmental expectations Developmental Psychopathology Change or lack of change over time o o Context o o o Hard to diagnose children because of changes over time Criteria change is different at different ages behavior normal at one age is a diagnostic criteria at another Child would act different at school home or around other adults Adults are more consistent in behaviors no matter the context Children aren t very consistent with behaviors Patterns of Adaptation o Behaviors adaptive in some circumstances is anti adaptive in others Ex children form strong attachments versus children in foster homes where attachments may have negative effects Typical Atypical Freud Can t draw a line to a specific cause Equifinality Many different causes can lead to the same outcome A or B or C or D ADHD Ex Poverty Fetal Anoxia Genetic susceptibility brain damage all can lead to ADHD Multifinality Once cause can lead to many different outcomes Ex Abusive parenting A or B or C or D Abusive Parenting can lead to depression eating disorders etc Given these problems How do we determining when development has gone awry When is a problem transient Based on what we have learned this semester we might consider Competence vs performance o What is really going on child thinking believing feeling vs What they actually do how they perform on a test what they are actually thinking feeling Genetic factors mediating the behavior o E g Dunedin study Parenting exacerbating the behavior Age appropriateness of the behavior Why studying development matters Promoting the health and well being of all children Concluding the Semester Goals of the Semester Thinking about where behavior comes from Convincing you that you should care Most important point We do develop Kids are very different than us Broad Themes Nature vs Nurture Continuity vs Change o Continuity more biological aspects Competence vs performance o o All over the place especially experiments and studying Limited in methods limited to performance for some methods Development is multi determined o Multifinality Narrow Themes Predictiveness matters kids are attuned to predictability in environment o o o Parenting reciprocal interactions that allow kids to predict their behavior Explains things like stranger anxiety can t predict what they will do Language learning Social Development Ex Children raised in a foster environment have different levels of predictability as they get moved around o Others Individual Differences o o o Typical vs Atypical What is normal Cultural differences Even within our culture o Misleading idea that everyone in a culture is the same Others Cascading effects of development Or Chicken vs egg problems which came first o o o o Parenting It is easier to parent an easy parent and vice versa So does the kid with more challenges cause less than great parenting versus is bad parenting the cause of problemed children Temperament vs Aggression Williams Syndrome Others 03 04 2014 03 04 2014