Developmental Psychology Revision

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Developmental PsychologyRevision
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Exam

• Exam
• Friday 9th Jan 200pm-400pm M/O Gym
• Learning outcome
• assess critically the main theories, models and
  research in developmental psychology and of
  specific phenomena relating to child development.

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What is Developmental Psychology?

• The study of the development of psychological
  processes
• The study of age-related changes in behaviour
• Issues to bear in mind
• Domains of Development
• Change and Continuity
• Nature vs Nurture
• Continuous and Stage-like changes
• Universal vs Context-specific development

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Theories of Developmental Psychology

• Theories of developmental psychology
• Cognitive-Developmental Theories
• Psychodynamic Theories
• Behavioural Learning and Social Cognitive
  Learning Theories
• Contextual Developmental Theories
• Nativist Theories

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Theory of mind

• Main points
• ToM is peoples common sense knowledge about
  others and their own mental activities (Lee,
  2000).
• When and why do children develop ToM? Traditional
  theories - cognitive deficit theories
• Evidence for and against cognitive deficit
  theories
• New theories
• ToM and autism

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Theory of Mind What you need to know

• Check the learning outcomes for the lecture
• Points to consider
• What are the theories of ToM? How do they
  differ?
• What does the evidence suggest about how ToM
  develops?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of the
  different research techniques (e.g. experiments,
  naturalistic data)?

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Identity development

• Main points
• Identity development is the process by which each
  person becomes the individual that he or she is
  the conditions and explanations of the self as
  determined by biological psychological factors
• Theories of identity development (Freud,
  Josselson, Erikson)
• Factors influencing identity development

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Identity Development What you need to know

• Check the learning outcomes for the lecture
• Points to consider
• What do the different theories state about
  identity development?
• What influences identity development?
• What does the research evidence suggest about
  identity development
• Can the theories account for this evidence?

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Childrens drawing

• Main points
• Main theories of drawing development are stage
  theories (Luquets theory)
• Evidence to support and disconfirm stage theory
• Cultural variations in drawing development

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Childrens Drawing What you should know

• Check the learning outcomes for the lecture
• Points to consider
• What do the main theories of drawing development
  (e.g. Luquets) suggest?
• How well does the evidence support these
  theories.
• What do cultural differences tell us about
  drawing development?
• Are there stages in drawing development?

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Memory and Perception

• Main points
• Early theories (e.g. Piaget) suggested that
  children were incompetent
• To what extent does the research evidence support
  this conclusion?
• evidence of infant memory abilities
• evidence of infant perceptual abilities

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Memory Perception What you need to know

• Check the learning outcomes for the lecture
• Points to consider
• 2 topics (memory and perception) were covered in
  this lecture. You may be asked a question on one
  or the other or a question on both (most probably
  a question on one or the other).
• How well does the research support the early
  theories of development (e.g. Piaget)?

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Behavioural Genetics

• Main points
• Investigates why people differ
• What are the sources of variance
• Designs to investigate the sources of variance

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Behavioural Genetics What you should know

• Check the learning outcomes for the lecture
• Points to consider
• what is behavioural genetics what does it study?
• How does behavioural genetics study behaviour?
  What research designs are used?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of
  particular research designs
• Be able to illustrate your answer with examples
  from the research literature (e.g. personality
  dev., intelligence etc).

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Socialisation

• Main points
• Socialisation is the development of social
  skills, attitudes and behaviours
• Social developmentalists ask questions about how
  these skills develop and what influences this
  development
• Theories (Social learning theory, Psychoanalytic
  theories, Ethological theory
• Influences on social development

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Socialisation What you need to know

• Check the learning outcomes for the lecture
• Points to consider
• how well do theories of social development
  explain the research literature?
• How good is the research?
• What influences social development?

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Language Acquisition

• Main points
• the problem - language is hard to learnt yet
  learnt quickly and effortlessly
• lexical acquisition
• the theories

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Language Acquisition What you should know

• Check the learning outcomes for the lecture
• Points to consider
• What do the theories say about language
  acquisition
• What does the research evidence suggest?
• Does it support one theory over another theory?

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Cognitive development

• Main points
• Piaget argued for universal, stage-like cognitive
  development
• Flaws in Piagets theory
• Alternatives
• Vygotsky continuous, culture and social
  interaction driven change. Role of instruction
  very important
• Bruner took from Ps and Vs theory. Stage-like
  change (modes) but emphasised the importance of
  social interaction

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Cognitive Development What you need to know

• Check the learning outcomes for the lecture
• Points to consider
• What are the successes and failures of the
  theories?
• How well do the theories account for the research
  evidence?

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Gender identity

• Main points
• Gender is the primary category by which
  individuals identify themselves as well as being
  identified by others.
• Gender identity is the individuals subjective
  sense of belonging to the male or female category
  or neither
• Theories of gender development

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Gender Identity What you need to know

• Check the learning outcomes for the lecture
• Points to consider
• What do the theories suggest influences the
  development of gender identity
• What does the research evidence suggest
  influences gender identity? Consider
• social factors, personality factors, biological
  factors
• How well supported are the claims of the
  theories?

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Conclusion

• Read around the topics
• Check the learning outcomes for each lecture that
  you revise and make sure that you can answer them
• Revise enough topics to be sure that you wont be
  stuck answering a hard question that youd really
  rather not answer
• If you are stuck (i.e. none of the topics you
  revised come up) you may want to try a general
  question if there is one, using the topics you
  have revised to illustrate your answer