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Introducing Dev. Psychology - Coggle Diagram
Introducing Dev. Psychology
What it is and why study
seeking to understand and explain change in individual's cognitive, social AND other capacities (including individ's biology influencing) by describing changes in child's observed behaviours AND uncovering processes underlying the changes
understanding origins/early influences on adult cognition/behaviour/other
this helps understand the mature forms of these capacities
understanding the issues and struggles including clinical conditions can help with interventions/prevention early
informing social policy - ie understanding mental wellbeing of children, what experiences are important for "healthy development" - informing health/education policies
Developmental periods - changes throughout lifespan
prenatal
prenatal experiences and EXPOSURE
infancy (birth to 18mths ish)
newborn babies
experiencing barrage of sensations - overwhelming but learn to piece these together very quickly
learning - who they are, where they are, who are "safe"
infants
often time where not speaking - pre-verbal yet still a lot of learning
? what methods to test things without language
childhood
preschool (18mths - 4yrs)
rapidly developing in lang./cognitive and social skills
bigger and busier worlds - now include daycare ON TOP of home environment
early childhood (5-7)
begin to understand complex ideas through formal schooling (ie maths, language)
more experience with non-family members, with peers/after-schl clubs, community activities
middle/late childhood (8-12)
early effects of puberty
adolescence (13-20)
high school/higher ed - different social and physical environments
effects of puberty
social and sexual development
develop complex reasoning and impulse control - but this develops until early adulthood (pref. cortex)
beginning of creating own worlds - gaining independance, choosing who and where to spend time
adulthood
young adulthood (21-30)
gaining detailed knowledge of skills ie higher ed/jobs/apprenticeshhips
establishing role in life - getting job, forming relationships
middle adulthood (31-60)
hard to classify across cultures - differences across contexts/cultures as to when this happens
careers peak
family transitions - marriages/child-rearing/adopting/inc. leaving home
late adulthood (60+)
retirement
declining physical and mental skills
"typical" and "atypical" development
what is "typical" - different milestones but these shld be taken with degree of error - bias in samples
"typical" is very relative - so WHO is the reference point for the data that makes the distribution - ie often WEIRD samples
"atypical" tend to be extreme ends of distribution - within these grps - where's the reference point for where children struggling?
ISSUES and PERSPECTIVES
Nature vs Nurture
nurture, empiricism - extent environment shapes development
nature, nativism - extent genetics shape development
most rschers think about the interaction - the relative contribution of each interwoven
Continuity vs discontinuity
is development in graded continuous development
or development as qualitatively different
stages
with no smooth gradual incline
critical vs sensitive periods - both relate to environmental influences
critical periods
time where certain experiences are
required
for development to happen in a "typical" way/trajectory
sensitive periods
time where certain experiences are
optimal
for development to happen in "typical" way BUT when absent = dev can still occur "typically"
domain general vs domain specific
domain specific
mechanisms is specific to particular area or domain
ie mechanisms for language ie Chomsky's LAD specific only to language - not relevant to sight
domain general
mechanisms related to other areas of development too
ie systems that support language SAME that support sight - ie connectionist theory for lang.
Perspectives
Individual differences - why some children react differently to same event/variable
cultural influences/differences - bias of knowledge on dev in certain cultures and from environmental perspective cultural differences where cultural influences in devop.
biological influences - ie bio/neurological/genetic factors related to developmental concepts - differences between "bio" psych and "dev" psych in past but shift with methods and neuroscientific approaches (brain changes alongsides theoretical stages)
Ecological perpsective - thinking of the whole of the child and all the different nested systems
link to Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model - individual at centre of nested systems of microsystem (immediate), meso, exo (broader, indirect influences and macro (context of time, cultural attitudes/ideas
lifespan perspective - thinking of different developmental periods bec. dev occurs across lifespan - not just infants/young children
Key Theories
Psychodynamic (FREUD - more influenced in its influence that what it posits)
oral > anal > phallic > latency > genital stages
id - pleasure principle, ego develops from anal stage (rational and reasonable), parental/societal values and morals - from super ego which develops around phallic stage
experiences in childhood have long-lasting effect on adult behaviours
eg of a discontinuous development - since staged theory
Behavioural approaches/theories
looking into previous learning histories and experiences to understand adult bhvr
classical and operant conditioning
continuous approach - changes in bhvr experience-driven, gradually
Social Learning theories - learning through observation, imitation, mediated by cognitive processes (think bobo doll)
Information processing theories and computational models
ie connectionist model for language - anologises the brain as a computer - inputs received that is processed through brain networks that then produces an output
continuous theories, gradual, build upon prev. experience
Ethological and Evolutionary theories
eg Bowlby, close bonds and attachments
why bhvr/dev adaptive for that context
looking at other species to and develop bhvrs like humans
Piaget's theory
constructivist - chilren construct knowledge for themselves responding to experience
children analogised to little scientists, hypothesis testing and learning
children learn on own WITHOUT adult instruction, intrinsically motivated
dev progress continuously AND in discrete stages (discontinuities)
Vygotsky's sociocultural theories
dev. takes place through children's social interactiolns with others - focus on social AND cultural influences - wider society/members of fam and peers
children = social beings - BOTH learner and teacher
continuous - NO discrrete stages
Key methods
correlational designs
looking at relationships amg variables
OPPOSED to assessing causal mechanisms
BUT establishing direction of effects is difficult
ie finding positive correlations between pretend play and assertiveness of social skills
experimental designs
allows to determine cause and effect by controlling variables and treatments
experimental grp (exposed to IV/treatment), control grp (not exposed), random assignment - individuals randomly allocated to either grp
BUT ensuring ecological validity often difficult - can we make conclusions beyond the experimental paradigm?
eg Salim's rsch found children allocated to playing with dolls/tablet games alone or with experimenter - found diff's in amount of speech spoken when playing
longitudinal
CAN explore causations, look at impact over time and minimise issues in comparing grps of different ages - no need to worry about individual diff's
studying same pp's over time by collecting data at various time points
issues - require lot of time/resources, AND issues with pp's dropping out who tend to be the ones that you want data on and less repped in rsch, influenced by major events (eg times being pre and post covid) so context can quickly be outdated
Cross sectional
compares pp's in different age grps at SAME TIME point
requier less time/money, less risk of drop out, less risk of influences of major events
BUT less able to confidentially conclude abt causation, issues in comparing grps since individ differences with no "controls"
Data Collection methods
reports
self - good for gaining info abt pp's own experiences BUT relies on pp having insight and understanding questions which difficult for young children
family, teacher and peer - GOOD for gaining info abt pp over variety of contexts and time points - esp if pp has condition, seeing if diff reports converge BUT prone to biases
observations
observing unstructured/natural interactions OR pp's interactions/bhvr during a structured task or activity
can have some element of ctrl - same task across pp's
more ecological validity
BUT observer's presence can influence outcome = child may act different, AND time-consuming to conduct and analyse
behavioural responses from experiments
observe, record and categorising bhvrl responses to a task
looking for pre-specified bhvrl responses
biological and physiological measures
looking at bio. basis of psychological development
fMRI, fNIRS, PET, EEG - what brain areas active during particular tasks