PSYC 2006: Childhood Development

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PSYC 2006 Childhood Development

• INSTRUCTOR Stephanie Rees
• ROOM
• Monday to Thursday 6-9pm

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OVERVIEW OF COURSE

• from birth to adolescence
• development biological, social, perceptual, and
  cognitive theories
• GRADING
• 2 tests at 15 each (30)
• best 2 out of 3 assignments at 20 each (40)
• Final exam worth 30

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THE STUDY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

• Chapter One

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LECTURE OVERVIEW

• Definitions of development
• Areas of study
• Recurring issues
• The Biopsychosocial Framework
• Developmental Theories
• Developmental Research Strategies

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What do we mean by DEVELOPMENT?

• Changes over the life span
• Conception Prenatal Development
• Birth
• Infancy
• Childhood
• Adolescence
• Adulthood
• Aging
• Death

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AGE RANGES

• Newborn birth to 1 month
• Infant 1 month to 1 year
• Toddler 1 to 2 years
• Preschooler 2 to 6 years
• School-age child 6 to 12 years
• Adolescent 12 to 20 years
• Young adult 20 to 40 years
• Middle-aged adult 40 to 60 years
• Young-old adult 60 to 80 years
• Old-old adult 80 years

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AREAS OF STUDY

• Biological issues
• Social issues
• Cognitive issues
• Perceptual issues
• Stage Theories of Development

What can we look at with these areas of study?
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LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

• Biological issues how brain areas change
• Social issues communicating with others
• Cognitive issues learning to assign meaning
• Perceptual issues auditory system
• Stage Theories of Development from sounds to
  words to sentences..

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RECURRING ISSUES
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NATURE vs. NUTURE

• Genetics and/or Environment
• Which is more important?
• Can we separate the effects of these two?
• How much influence does each have?
• Intelligence?
• Social Behavior?
• Employment?

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CONTINUITY vs. DISCONTINUITY

• Continuity traits that are stable over time
• Discontinuity traits that change over time and
  with experience
• smooth progression vs. abrupt shifts
• Is it the same for all traits and for all
  individuals?

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UNIVERSAL vs. CONTEXT-SPECIFIC

• Do we all develop in the same way?
• What about different environments, cultures,
  values, etc.?
• do these make a difference?
• Rates of development
• Stages of development

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THE BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL FRAMEWORK
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BIOLOGICAL FORCES
LIFE-CYCLE FORCES
PSYCHOLOGICAL FORCES
SOCIOLOGICAL FORCES
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BIOLOGICAL FORCES

• Biological development
• Brain maturation
• Transitions Puberty, Menopause, etc.
• Genetics
• Can be affected by environment
• example effects of early environment

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PSYCHOLOGICAL FORCES

• Characteristics of personality
• Internal cognitive, emotional, personality,
  perceptual, and related factors that influence
  behavior
• focus of this course

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SOCIOCULTURAL FORCES

• How people and environments interact and relate
• Individuals and institutions form culture
• Ex. family, cohort, country, etc.
• Can change with times (history)
• Societal values change over generations
• Inventions, language, etc.

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LIFE-CYCLE FORCES

• forces interact not independent of one another
• Timing same event can have different
  consequences depending on when it happens during
  development

biological psychological sociocultural
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DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES
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THEORIES

• Psychodynamic Theory
• Learning Theory
• Cognitive-Developmental Theory
• Ecological and Systems Approach
• Life-Span Perspective, Selective Optimization,
  and Life Course Perspective

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PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY

• internal motives and drives that are largely
  unconscious
• nature or nurture?
• INSTINCTIVE, but..
• stage theories
• Freud (1856-1939)
• Father of psychology
• Erikson (1902-1994)
• Psychosocial theory

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SIGMUND FREUD

• Most famous and influential founder of scientific
  psychology
• the Freudian slip and Dream Analysis
• Psychoanalysis has been isolated from scientific
  psychology
• pseudoscience
• Based on reliable observations
• case studies

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Cont.

• Psychology through physiology
• clinical neurology
• Importance of early experience
• conflict resolution for normal development
• Central to theory was sex instinct
• neither species nor cultural specific
• one of the biological needs
• key role in formation of neuroses
• ego, id, superego

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ERIK ERIKSON

• stages of INTERNAL and EXTERNAL demands
• based on epigenetic principle critical periods

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STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

• Trust vs. Mistrust
• Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
• Initiative vs. Guilt
• Industry vs. Inferiority
• Identity vs. Identity Confusion
• Intimacy vs. Isolation
• Generativity vs. Stagnation
• Integrity vs. Despair

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LEARNING THEORY

• how learning influences behaviors
• emphasizes role of experience
• nature or nurture?
• IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENT
• Skinner (1904-1990)
• Behaviourism
• Bandura (1925)
• Social Learning Theory

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B.F. SKINNER

• Childs mind is a blank slate at birth
• Operant Conditioning
• Reinforcement increasing behavior
• Positive vs. Negative
• Punishment decreasing behavior
• Positive vs. Negative
• Skinners Pigeons
• Skinner Box
• Skinners Daughter

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ALBERT BANDURA

• Sometimes learn with reinforcement and/or
  punishment
• watching others
• imitation or observational learning ex. Bobo
  doll experiment
• cognitive theory of development
• self-efficacy

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COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY

• thought process and construction of knowledge
• nature vs. nurture?
• INTERACTION WITH ENVIRONMENT
• Stage theories
• Piaget (1896-1980) cognitive development
• Kohlberg (1927-1987) moral development
• Information-processing theories

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JEAN PIAGET

• how we construct knowledge over time
• making sense of the world
• Criticisms
• Critical points of development
• Sensorimotor
• Preoperational thought
• Concrete Operational thought
• Formal Operational thought

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LAWRENCE KOHLBERG

• Stages of thinking of moral dilemmas
• correspond with Piagets stages
• Stages of moral development
• Preconventional stage Punishment and Reward
• Conventional stage Social Norms
• Postconventional stage Moral Codes

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STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

• Preconventional stage Punishment and Reward
• 1. Obedience to authority
• 2. Future favours
• Conventional stage Social Norms
• 3. Others expectations
• 4. Rules to maintain social order
• Postconventional stage Moral Codes
• 5. Adhere to social contract when valid
• 6. Personal moral system based on abstract
  principles

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INFORMATION-PROCESSING

• not a stage theory
• how computers process information
• Hardware and Software
• Cognitive structures in the brain
• Cognitive process to analyze information

but explaining developmental processes?
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ECOLOGICAL AND SYSTEMS

• Complexities of the environment
• nature vs. nurture?
• ROLE OF ENVIRONMENT, but
• Bronfenbrenner (1917)
• different systems within the environment
• Competence-Environmental Press Theory
• interaction of individual with environment

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URIE BRONFENBRENNER

• Four levels of environment
• Microsystem immediate environment
• Mesosystem many microsystems
• ex. home and work
• Exosystem social settings not experienced
  directly
• Macrosystem culture

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COMPETENCE-ENVIRONMENTAL PRESS

• Adapt to environment based on competency and
  ability
• nature or nurture?
• BIT OF BOTH?
• Demands of environment create behavior through
  abilities of individual

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OVERVIEW THEORIES

• LIFE-SPAN PERSPECTIVE
• multiply determined
• not one framework
• SELECTIVE-OPTIMIZATION
• three processes form a system that regulates
  development
• Selection, Optimization, and Compensation
• LIFE COURSE PERSPECTIVE
• various generations and historical context

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LIFE-SPAN PERSPECTIVE

• Aging is a lifelong process
• always developing
• understand stage of developed from whats
  happened and whats to come
• Social, historical, and environmental change
• 2 phases
• Early phase childhood and adolescence
• Later phase young adulthood, middle age, and old
  age

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Cont.

• 4 features of life-span perspective
• Multidirectionality
• Plasticity
• Historical Context
• Multiple Causation

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SELECTIVE OPTIMIZATION WITH COMPENSATION

• Selection choose goals, life domains, and life
  tasks
• Optimization and Compensation maintaining and
  enhancing goals
• selecting from a range of possibilities
• Elective selection
• Loss-based selection

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Cont.

• Optimization minimize loss and maximize gain
• best match between resources and goals

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LIFE COURSE PERSPECTIVE

• Several key transitions to life
• Ex. finishing school, marriage, getting a job
• Happen at different times for different people
• How an individuals life relates to historical
  events
• Individuals transitions with familial
  transitions
• Impact of earlier life events on later life events

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COMPARISON OF THEORIES

• Looking at different aspects of development?
• Interaction between theories?
• Replacing theories?
• Stage theories vs. Learning Theories

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INTERACTION WITH PEERS

• Psychodynamic Theory
• Learning Theory
• Cognitive-Developmental Theory
• Ecological and Systems Approach
• Life-Span Perspective, Selective Optimization,
  and Life Course Perspective

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INTERACTION WITH PEERS

• Psychodynamic Theory early stage resolutions
• Learning Theory what others do and/or rewards
• Cognitive-Developmental Theory stages
• Ecological and Systems Approach environment
• Life-Span Perspective, Selective Optimization,
  and Life Course Perspective many aspects

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DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH STRATEGIES
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MEASUREMENT

• Systemic observation
• observing without disturbing
• Naturalistic observation spontaneous behavior in
  natural environment
• Structure observation environment is likely to
  elicit behavior of interest
• Problems people aware of being observed

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Cont

• Sampling behavior with tasks
• when cannot observe a behavior directly
• very convenient
• Is it a valid approach? Does it actually tell us
  what we want to know?
• Subjects perform differently when being tested
  than when in natural setting

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Cont.

• Self reports
• answers to questions regarding behavior of
  interest
• questionnaire or interview
• answers can be inaccurate
• not remembering accurately
• wanting to give correct answer

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Cont.

• Measurements used must be
• Reliable
• consistent index of characteristic
• always measures same characteristic
• Valid
• measuring what is wanted
• same results as other tests measuring the same
  characteristic

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RESEARCH DESIGNS

• Correlational Studies
• Relations between variables
• positive and negative relationships
• Correlation coefficient strength and direction
  of relation
• BUT. influence of other variables
• example height relating to weight

but does height cause weight, or vice versa?
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Cont.

• Experimental Studies
• manipulating factors to give cause and effect
• Independent variable manipulated
• Dependent variable measured (depends on)
• random assignment to groups
• usually not in a natural setting
• ex. Ritalin decreases attention deficits

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DEVELOPMENTAL DESIGNS

• Longitudinal Studies
• same person tested over various ages
• stability of behaviour
• high subject drop out rate
• takes a long time to complete study
• using same test multiple times
• ex. changes in extroversion over lifespan

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Cont.

• Cross-Sectional Studies
• testing people in different age groups
• more convenient than longitudinal studies
• cohort effects people within an age group did
  not necessarily experience the same events as
  people at a younger age
• Ex. historical events, different school
  curriculums, etc.
• - ex. ability to solve puzzle

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Cont.

• Sequential Studies
• Cross-sectional and Longitudinal approach
• starts with one than adds the other
• address limitations of other two designs
• Isolate cohort effects
• Isolate drop-out effects
• but still very expensive

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RESEARCH ETHICS

• Minimize risks to participants
• Describe research to potential participants
• Avoid deception
• If must be deceived provide explanation as soon
  as possible
• Results should be anonymous and confidential

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SCIENTIFIC METHOD

• Question
• Hypothesis
• Testing/Data Collection
• Theory
• Law

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SCIENTIFIC METHOD

• Question is height related to weight?
• Hypothesis educated guess
• Testing/Data Collection question must be
  testable
• Theory based on collected data
• Law a theory that is always true

Theory must be falsifiable or it could be
considered to be pseudoscience.
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COMMUNICATING RESULTS

• Results written as paper/article to be submitted
  to journal
• must report methods and data accurately so that
  other researchers would be able to reproduce
  experiment
• Journals are specialized to report certain types
  of research
• Ex. aging, neurobiology, etc.

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APPLYING RESULTS

• Does any of this research help us?
• Is any of this research applicable?
• Can have effects on policymaking
• Importance of Day Care
• Teacher-Student Ratios in Classroom

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CONCLUSION
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CONCLUSION

• Several approaches to studying development
• Some are independent of one another and some
  overlap
• Remember as we go through course about these
  different approaches
• Research strategies
• Importance of well-done research