Chapter 1 Notes - The study of human development. PDF

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The study of human development....

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Chapter 1: The Study of Human Development Introduction • The study of human development asks some of life’s most basic questions: – How did your life begin, and how did you grow from a single cell into a complex adult? – How will you influence other people’s lives, and they yours? – How will the various roles in your life shape your development? – How will you deal with death – your own as well as others? • Human development is the multidisciplinary study of how people change/stay the same over time 1.1 Thinking About Development • Learning Objectives – What fundamental issues of development have scholars addressed throughout history? – What are the basic forces in the biopsychosocial framework? How does the timing of these forces affect their impact? – How does neuroscience enhance our understanding of human development? Recurring Issues in Human Development • Life is shaped by a complex set of factors • Consider three pairs of fundamental characteristics of human development: – Nature and nurture – Continuity and discontinuity – Universal and context-specific development • Nature-nurture issue – Are personal characteristics inherited (nature) or brought about by the environment (nurture)? – Consider this: • People in certain careers have much in common • How do nature and nurture influence a person’s choice to be a professional baseball player? • Continuity-discontinuity issue – Do personal characteristics remain the same, or progress smoothly (continuity), or are they a series of abrupt shifts (discontinuity)? • Universal vs. context-specific issue – Is there just one developmental path or several? Basic Forces in Human Development • Four interactive forces that affect development – Biological forces – Psychological forces – Sociocultural forces

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– Life-cycle forces Interaction of these forces is known as the biopsychosocial framework

The Biopsychosocial Framework

Neuroscience: A Window into Human Development • Neuroscience: the study of the brain and nervous system, especially brain-behavior relationships – Neuroscientific approaches are applied to human development issues such as memory, reasoning, and emotion – Methods include molecular analyses and brain imaging techniques 1.2 Developmental Theories • Learning Objectives – What is a developmental theory? – How do psychodynamic theories account for development? – What is the focus of the learning theories of development? – How do cognitive-developmental theories explain changes in thinking? – What are the main points in the ecological and systems approach? – What are the major tenets of the life-span and the life-course theories? Developmental Theories • Why do people have their own specific characteristics? • Theory: an organized set of ideas • Five general theories of human development – Psychodynamic theory – Learning theory – Cognitive-developmental theory

– Ecological and systems theory – Lifespan perspective and related theories Psychodynamic Theory • Development is determined by how well people resolve conflicts faced at different ages – Key theorists: Erik Erikson and Sigmund Freud – Erikson’s theory of development: • Based on epigenetic principle of psychosocial stages • See Table 1.1

Learning Theory • How does learning influence a certain behavior? • Two key learning theories: – Behaviorism (B.F. Skinner) • Consequences of a behavior determine whether or not that behavior is repeated in the future – Social learning theory (Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory) • Learning occurs through imitation or observational learning Cognitive-Developmental Theory • How people think and how thinking changes over time • Three distinct theories

– Piaget’s theory: children create theories about the world and test them out through experience – Information-processing theory: human cognition consists of mental hardware (cognitive structures) and mental software (sets of cognitive processes) • Do mental hardware and software improve with age? – Vygotsky’s theory: every aspect of a child’s development must be considered against the backdrop of culture • Do Americans value education more than some cultures? Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development

Ecological & Systems Perspective • Development is inseparable from the environment in which a person develops – How would an ecological theorist explain an American teenager’s behavior? – Two examples of this approach: • Bronfenbrenner’s theory: people are embedded into four levels of the environment • Competence-environmental press theory: a good match between competence and environmental press is best for development

Lifelong Development Perspective • Can you understand a person without knowledge of his or her life experiences? – Life-span perspective: development cannot be understood in the scope of one framework • One must appreciate an adult’s childhood and adolescence in order to understand them • Four central features of lifespan development perspective (Baltes & Smith, 2003): – Multidirectionality, plasticity, historical context, and multiple causation • Selective optimization with compensation model: – Selection, compensation, and optimization form a system of behavioral action with regards to aging • Life-course perspective: – How do various generations experience the biopsychosocial forces of development in their lives? • Consider the interplay between individual and society • Do young people today tend to marry at the same age as people of 75 years ago? What are the contributing factors?

The Big Picture

1.3 Doing Developmental Research • Learning Objectives – How do scientists measure topics of interest in studying human development? – What research designs are used to study human development? – What ethical procedures must researchers follow? – How do investigators communicate results from research studies? – How does research affect public policy?

Measurement in Human Development Research • Four approaches to doing developmental research: – Systematic observation – Sampling behavior with tasks – Self-reports – Physiological measures • Two types of systematic observations: – Naturalistic observations: observing a person in a real-life situation – Structured observations: creating a setting to bring out the behavior of interest • Pitfall is bringing out an unnatural or unrealistic behavior • Self-reports: people’s answers to questions about the topic of interest – Written answers in a questionnaire – Oral answers in an interview – Note: answers are only as good as the person’s memory and desire to answer honestly • Physiological measures – Brain imaging; heart rate monitoring – Specialized for measuring a specific aspect of behavior

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Researchers must demonstrate that their chosen method is reliable and valid – Reliability: extent to which a measure provides a consistent index of a characteristic

– Validity: the extent to which a measure assesses what the researcher thinks it is assessing • Sample must be representative of the population of interest – Can a measure be reliable but not valid? General Designs for Research • Human development researchers rely on two primary designs: – Correlational studies: relationships between variables that exist naturally in the world • Correlation coefficient of -1.0 to +1.0 – Experimental studies: systematic ways of manipulating the independent variable(s) in order to cause a particular behavior (dependent variable) • Random assignment to conditions

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Qualitative research: allows the researcher to gain an in-depth understanding of human behavior and what governs it – Is it best to use a large sample or small sample with a qualitative design?

Designs for Studying Development • Three designs that allow researchers to study development: – Longitudinal – Cross-sectional – Sequential • Longitudinal studies: same individuals are tested throughout their lives – Most direct way to identify change, but costly and difficult to complete • Cross-sectional studies: tests people of different ages at the same time – Cohort effects: A 70-year-old man today will exhibit different behavior than a 70year-old man 30 years from now

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Sequential studies: a complex design that combines both cross-sectional and longitudinal methods

Conducting Research Ethically • Methods must not violate participants’ rights • A review panel must approve a proposed study • Each participant or parent/guardian must be informed of what the study entails and give his or her consent Communicating Research Results • Researchers write a report that describes how they did their study, what they found, and the meaning behind these findings • Goal: publication in a scientific journal – Child Development, Psychology, and Aging, etc. – Published reports serve as the basis of knowledge for the field Applying Research Results: Social Policy • Policy makers and politicians are influenced by human development research – Child abuse laws; ban of lead-based paint • Can you name other laws/policies that take human development research into account?...