Child Growth and Development TECA 1354

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Child Growth and DevelopmentTECA 1354

• Nita Thomason, Ed.D.

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Information

• Name
• Email (use Cougar Mail)
• Phone
• Major
• Career Plan
• Experience with Children

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Chapter 1History, Theories, and Methods
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History, Theories, and Methods Truth or Fiction?

• Research with monkeys has helped psychologists
  understand the formation of attachment in humans.
• In order to learn how a person develops over a
  lifetime, researchers have tracked some
  individuals for more than 50 years.

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What Is Child Development?the field of study
devoted to understanding constancy and change
from conception through adolescence and emerging
adulthood
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What Is Child Development?

• Periods of Development
• Conception and Prenatal
• Infancy
• Early Childhood
• Middle Childhood
• Adolescence

• Dimensions of Development
• Physiological
• Cognitive
• Social
• Emotional
• Behavioral

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Types of Theories

• Continuous gradually building the skills he has
  always had. The child is just like the adult
  except less mature, with growth will be able to
  do everything
• Discontinuous new ways of thinking and
  understanding emerge at specific times
• A school counselor advises a parent, Dont worry
  about your teenagers argumentative behavior. It
  shows she understands the world differently than
  she did as a child. What position is the
  counselor taking on the issue of
  continuous/discontinuous development?
• Nature vs Nurture
• Cite an aspect of your development that differs
  from your parents when he or she was your age.
• Identify a stressful time in your childhood. Were
  there one or more adults whose presence made that
  time more manageable? If so, what were the
  qualities of the relationship that contributed to
  your ability to cope?

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Why Do Researchers Study Child Development?

• Gain insight into
• human nature,
• origins of adult behavior,
• origins of differences,
• origins, prevention and treatment of
  developmental problems
• Optimize conditions of development

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What Views of Children Do We Find Throughout
History?

• Ancient Times and Middle Ages
• Children viewed as innately evil
• Age 7 is the age of reason
• Children were treated as miniature adults
• John Locke
• Child came into world as tabula rasa, or blank
  slates
• Focus on role of environment and experience
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Children are inherently good and moral

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What Views of Children Do We Find Throughout
History?

• Industrial Revolution
• Nuclear family
• Childhood is recognized as a time period of life
• 20th Century
• Child rights in labor, education, neglect

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Pioneers in the Study of Child Development

• Charles Darwin (1809 1882)
• Theory of evolution
• Use of baby biography
• G. Stanley Hall (1944 - 1924)
• Child development as a academic discipline
• Questionnaire methodology with children
• Alfred Binet (1857 1911)
• First standardized intelligence test

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Theories of Child Development
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What Are Theories?

• Related sets of statements about events
• Include descriptive terms and concepts
• Based on certain assumptions
• Allow explanations and predictions
• Wide range of applicability
• Influence events

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Why Do We Have Theories?

• Theories of development help us
• describe,
• explain,
• predict, and
• influence events being studied.

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The Psychoanalytic Perspective

• Freuds theory of psychosexual development
• Eriksons theory of psychosocial development
• View children (and adults) involved in conflict
• internal drive and urges
• internalize external demands and rules
• Stage theories
• distinct periods of development

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Freuds Theory of Psychosexual Development

• Sigmund Freud (1856 1939)
• Levels of awareness
• Conscious level
• Preconscious level
• Unconscious level
• Parts of personality
• Id
• Ego
• Superego
• Quantity of gratification at each stage
• Fixated at that stage

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Stages of Psychosexual Theory of Development

• Oral Stage
• Sucking and biting
• Early weaning or breast-fed too long
• Fixation nail-biting, smoking, biting wit
• Anal Stage
• Control and elimination of waste
• Excessive strict or permissive toilet training
• Fixation anal-retentive (neatness)
  anal-expulsion (sloppiness)

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Stages of Psychosexual Theory of Development

• Phallic Stage
• Parent-child conflict over masturbation
• View same sex parent as rival
• Latency Stage
• Sexual feelings remain unconscious
• Genital Stage
• Begins at adolescence
• Desire sexual gratification through intercourse
  with member of other sex
• Interest in any other sexual gratification
  indicates fixation at an earlier stage of
  development

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Evaluation of Psychosexual Theory of Development

• Major contribution to 20th century thought
• Comprehensive theory of childhood
• Influenced parents, child-care workers and
  educators
• Based on patients (women) who were emotionally
  troubled
• Little empirical data
• Placed too much emphasis on instincts and
  unconscious motives
• Erik Erikson and Karen Horney

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Eriksons Theory of Psychosocial Development

• Erik Erikson (1902 1994)
• modified and expanded Freuds theory
• successful resolution of life crises bolsters
  sense of identity
• Differences from psychosexual development
• focus on development of self-identity
• includes conscious and purposeful acts in
  development
• extended stages to eight throughout adulthood

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Stages of Psychosocial Development

• Trust versus Mistrust
• Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt
• Initiative versus Guilt
• Industry versus Inferiority
• Identity versus Role Diffusion
• Intimacy versus Isolation
• Generativity versus Stagnation
• Ego Integrity versus Despair

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Evaluation of Psychosocial Development

• Highly appealing
• emphasize choice and minimize urges
• portray people as prosocial and giving
• Unified view of life span development
• Some empirical support

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The Learning Perspective Behavioral and Social
Cognition Theories

• Mechanical learning by association
• Conditioning
• Intentional learning
• Rote and trail-and-error learning
• Observational learning

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What Is the Theory of Behaviorism?

• John Watson
• Only address observable behavior
• Contributions to behaviorism
• Classical Conditioning
• Operant Conditioning

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Classical Conditioning

• Learning by Association
• Unconditioned Unlearned
• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) elicits
  Unconditioned Response (UCR)
• Introduction of a Neutral Stimulus
• Repeated association of neutral Stimulus and UCS
• Conditioned Learned
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS) elicits Conditioned
  Response (CR)

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Classical Conditioning

• Pavlovs Salivating Dogs
• Food (UCS) elicits Salivation (UCR)
• Clinking of food trays (neutral stimulus)
• Clinking of food trays prior to Food (UCS)
• Clinking of food trays (CS) elicits Salivation
  (CR)
• Application with Children
• Behavior modification

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Figure 1.1 Schematic Representation of Classical
Conditioning
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Operant Conditioning

• Learn to operate on environment because of the
  effects of behavior
• Behavior occurs and then a stimulus is introduced
  that will encourage the repetition of the
  behavior
• B. F. Skinner Reinforcement
• Any stimulus that increases the frequency of the
  behavior they follow

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Principles of Operant Conditioning

• Positive reinforcers
• Something applied that increases the frequency of
  the behavior
• Negative reinforcers
• Something removed that increases the frequency of
  the behavior
• Extinction
• Operant behavior is no longer shown after
  repeated performance of the behavior without
  reinforcement

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Figure 1.2 Positive versus Negative Reinforcers
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Punishment

• Aversive events that decrease the behavior they
  follow
• Usually undesirable for learning
• Does not suggest an alternative, acceptable form
  of behavior
• Tends to suppress undesirable behavior only under
  certain conditions
• Punished children may withdraw from the situation
• Can create anger and hostility
• May generalize too far
• May be imitated as a way of problem solving or
  coping with stress

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A Closer Look

• Operant Conditioning of Vocalizations in Infants

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Figure 1.3 Negative Reinforcers versus
Punishments
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Application of Operant Conditioning

• Shaping
• Teaching complex behaviors
• Socialization of children
• Parent and child
• Child and child
• Teacher and child

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Social Cognitive Theory

• Acquire basic know-how through observational
  learning
• Learning alters childs mental representation of
  environment and influences belief in ability to
  change the environment
• Child is an active learner
• Intentional observation of models for imitation

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Evaluation of Learning Theories

• Meets the goals of describe, explain and predict
  aspects of childrens behavior
• Principles abundant in education and clinical
  application
• Unclear if learning is only mechanical
• Underestimates role of biological-maturation
  factors

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The Cognitive Perspective

• Focus on childrens mental processes
• How children perceive and mentally represent the
  world
• Jean Piaget (1896 1980)
• Cognitive-developmental theory
• Information-processing theory

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Piagets Cognitive-Developmental Theory

• Working with Binet on IQ tests for children,
  Piaget became interested in childrens incorrect
  answers
• Piagets work was not widely read until mid
  1950s
• difficult to understand
• introduced when behaviorism and psychoanalysis
  were popular
• Piagets view of children as little scientists

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Piagets Basic Concepts

• Scheme
• pattern of action involved in acquiring or
  organizing knowledge
• Adaptation
• interaction between child and the environment
• Assimilation
• Respond to new object or event according to
  existing schemes
• Accommodation
• Adjust scheme to a new object or event
• Equilibration
• Process of restoring equilibrium after a period
  of accommodation

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Piagets Stages of Cognitive-Development Theory

• Four major stages
• Sensorimotor
• Preoperational
• Concrete Operational
• Formal Operational
• Stages are universal
• Development is based on childrens interactions
  with their environments
• Influential in many educational settings

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Evaluation of Cognitive-Development Theory

• Piaget may have underestimated childrens
  abilities by age
• Cognitive growth may be more gradual than
  Piagets distinct stages

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Information-Processing Theory

• Influenced by the concepts of computer science
• Process of encoding information (input)
• Storage of information (long-term memory)
• Retrieval of information (short-term memory)
• Manipulation of information to solve problems
  (output)
• Software (mental processes)
• Hardware (brain)
• Consider limitations of child
• Short-term memory
• Ability to multi-task
• Applications in education

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The Biological Perspective

• Physical development
• Gains in height and weight
• Development of nervous system
• Developments connected with hormones, heredity
• Ethology

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What Is Ethology?

• Evolution of humans within the animal kingdom
• Influence by Charles Darwin, Konrad Lorenz and
  Niko Tinbergen
• Involves instinctive behavior patterns
• Inborn fixed action patterns (FAPs)
• Evaluation
• Assume instinctive behaviors can be modified
  through learning

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The Ecological Systems Theory

• Explains development through interactions between
  children and the settings in which they live
• Urie Bronfenbrenner
• Reciprocal interactions
• focus on interactions between parent and child
  (bidirectional)
• Five Embedded Systems
• Microsystem
• Mesosystem
• Exosystem
• Macrosystem
• Chronosystem

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Figure 1.4 The Contexts of Human Development
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Developing in a World of Diversity

• Influence of the Macrosystem on the Development
  of Independence

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The Sociocultural Perspective

• View children as social beings who are influenced
  by the cultures in which they live
• Lev Vygotskys (1896 1934) sociocultural theory
• Impact on children of human diversity

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Vygotskys Sociocultural Theory

• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
• range of tasks child can perform with help of
  someone more skilled
• use of conversations, external and internal, to
  guide the learning
• Scaffolding
• Adult provides problem-solving methods until
  child can perform independently
• May also be used by child with peers

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Sociocultural Perspective and Human Diversity

• Awareness of diversity among children
• Ethnicity
• Understanding of childrens family values and
  cultural expectations
• Gender
• Understanding of gender-role expectations
• Sexual Orientation
• Disabilities

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Controversies in Child Development
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The Nature Nurture Controversy

• To what extent is human behavior the results of
• Nature heredity
• Nurture environment
• Orientation toward nature
• Cognitive-development theory
• Biological theorists
• Orientation toward nurture
• Learning theories
• Contemporary view of both nature and nurture

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The Continuity Discontinuity Controversy

• Do developmental changes occur
• continuously (gradually)
• discontinuously (major qualitative leaps)
• Orientation toward continuity
• Maturational theories
• Orientation toward discontinuity
• Stage theories (Freud, Piaget)

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The Active Passive Controversy

• For learning to occur do educators need to
• motivate passive learners, or
• encourage active learners to explore
• Bronfenbrenner (1977) views children as both
  active and passive
• Banduras reciprocal determinism
• mutual influences of people and the environment

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How Do We Study Child Development?
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What Is the Scientific Method?

• Step 1 Formulating a Research Question
• Step 2 Developing a Hypothesis
• Step 3 Testing the Hypothesis
• Step 4 Drawing Conclusions about the Hypothesis
• Step 5 Publish Findings

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What Is Naturalistic Observation?

• Field studies
• Observations done in natural (real-life) settings
• Control for interference
• Often used initially to gather descriptive data
  or to explore relationships among variables
• Examples of naturalistic-observation studies
• Motor behavior of Native American children
  strapped to cradleboards
• Language development in diverse cultures
• Socialization patterns in diverse cultures

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What Is Case Study?

• Account of behavior of an individual
• Includes many different types of information
• Child diaries
• Questionnaires
• Standardized tests
• Interviews
• Other sources of records
• Example of case study
• Piagets cognitive-development model based on his
  own children
• Freuds psychosexual theory based on his patients

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Child Observation Project

• Height/weight chart
• Anecdotal records
• Running records
• Physical development summary
• Intellectual/cognitive summary
• Social/emotion summary
• Child-made products
• Photographs
• Parent comments/interview sheet
• Teacher comments
• Developmental milestones chart
• Resources (in APA style)

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What Does It Mean to Correlate Information?

• Mathematical calculation to determine
  relationships between behaviors and/or traits
• Correlation coefficient
• Mathematical number between 1.00 and -1.00
• Positive correlation
• Negative correlation
• Limitation Shows relationships, not cause and
  effect

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Figure 1.7 Examples of Positive and Negative
Correlations
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What Is an Experiment?

• Research method in which one group receives
  treatment and another does not
• Used to determine cause and effect
• Variables
• Independent variable - manipulated by
  experimenter
• Dependent variable measured results
• Participant Groups
• Experimental group receive the treatment
• Control group do not receive the treatment
• Random Assignment
• Ethical and Practical Considerations

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How Do Researchers Study Development Over Time?

• Longitudinal research
• Same children are observed repeatedly over time
• May lose participants over time
• Cross-sectional research
• Children of different ages are observed and
  compared
• Cohort effect
• Cross-sequential research
• Combines longitudinal (time period) and
  cross-sectional (cohorts)
• Breaks time span into convenient segments

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Figure 1.8 Examples of Cross-Sequential Research
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What Ethical Guidelines Are Involved in Research
in Child Development?

• Standards to promote the dignity of the
  individual, foster human welfare, and maintain
  scientific integrity
• Treatment may not do physical or psychological
  harm
• Subjects must participate voluntarily