Exam 1 Material - Covers: enduring themes in childhood development, historical foundations of PDF

Preview

Summary

Covers: enduring themes in childhood development, historical foundations of the study of childhood development, methods for studying childhood development, nature and nurture.
Professor: Dr. Strauss...

Description

Exam 1

Enduring Themes in Childhood Development  Reasons for learning about child development: ● Raising children ● Understanding social policy ● Understanding human nature  Course Goal: to think about applied issues of child development by understanding the science of developmental psychology and understanding the child Examples of applied issues: ● What is good parenting? ● How should we educate children? ● How do we think about social issues such as: ○ Child care ○ Child abuse/neglect ○ Juvenile delinquency ○ Teen pregnancy  Scientific Issues of Developmental Psychology ● Mechanisms of change ○ Why are the thought processes of a 3 year old versus a 10 year old so different?  Continuity and Discontinuity ● Continuous development ○ Changes with age occur gradually, in small increments ○ Development occurs skill by skill and task by task ● Discontinuous development ○ Changes with age include occasional large shifts ○ Qualitative differences occur ○ Piaget, Freud, Erikson, and Kohlberg were stage theorists In what ways is development continuous, and in what ways is it discontinuous? ● Examples: ○ Pine trees develop continually ○ Butterflies develop discontinuously (caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly)  How do Nature and Nurture Shape Development? ● Nurture: environment ● Nature: individual’s complete set of hereditary information ● All human characteristics are created through interaction of genes and the environment How does this interaction shape development? (Why do boys and girls behave differently)

Exam 1 Are there critical periods of development?  Individual Differences: How do children become so different from one another? ● Genetic differences ● Differences in treatment by parents and others ● Differences in reactions to similar experiences ● Different choices of environments  The Sociocultural Context: What do we mean by environment? ● Sociocultural context ○ Influences every aspect of children’s development ● Bronfenbrenner: bioecological model ○ Most important component, involves people with whom children interact ○ Institutions are influential and are important *Community* ● Less tangible sociocultural factors include: ○ Historical era ○ Economic structure ○ Cultural beliefs ○ Cultural values   

Exam 1

Historical Foundations of the Study of Childhood Development  Modern View of Development ● Children are special and need to be nurtured ● We need to understand the developmental process ● Childhood consists of “special periods” ○ Newborn ○ Infant ○ Toddler ○ Preschooler ○ Early Childhood ○ Middle Childhood ○ Pre-adolescence ■ Different from adolescence due to exposure, biology, etc. ○ Adolescence  How We Portray Children and Families ● Current ○ Cuddling, being sweet with them ● Middle Ages ○ No recognition of childhood ○ In portraits, children simply look like small adults ● 1400s Infant Swaddling ○ Wrap baby and tie them so they cannot get in trouble ○ Prevented them from sucking  Children During the Middle Ages ● No clear sense of childhood as a special period ● Was not even a word that meant “child” ● For first 5 to 7 years, while children needed to be fed, sheltered, etc., they didn't require any special nurturing ● By age 7 were considered adults and expected to participate in adult activities ○ Children of nobles began with tutors ○ Average children went to work  Diary of Louis 13th ● At age 5: started gambling, played a part in a play about adultery ● At age 7: hunted with adults, enjoyed risque stories  Why were adults so harsh towards children during the middle ages? ● Very high mortality rates ○ Most children died by the age of 5 years ○ By 1800, 50% to 70% died by age 5

Exam 1

●

●

○ By 1900s, 25% dead by age 5 ○ Moliere: “I don’t count the little ones Montaigne, all mine die like cabbages” Economic harshness ○ Sexism - boys were seen as more valuable than girls so boys can help with economic issues Concept of Original Sin ○ Church believed kids were born sinful ○ Parental role = discipline ○ Explains baptism

 *Photos from 1565 and 1656: much more warm toward children, children were not portrayed like small adults (actual childlike)  What changed during the Renaissance? ● Decreasing control of the church ○ Less “kids are born evil” ● Rise of middle class and materialism ○ Children were a sign of wealth - could be enjoyed because of no economic hardship ● General enlightenment of thought and rise of scientific reasoning (e.g. Galileo, Newton)  Emile by Jean Rousseau (1700s) ● First book written about children and how they develop ● First person to suggest that childhood should be broken down into stages  Rousseau’s Stages of Development 1. 0-2: Immediate impulse to start discipline and building of habits, but people should allow nature guide learning to walk, talk, etc. 2. 2-12: Stresses the need for guiding interactions of child with the environment - learning is a natural process and the role of a tutor mainly to prevent harm (wealthy) 3. 12-15: Notes the development of new physical and mental strengths → adolescence 4. 15-20: Formal instruction should begin  “Review” by Archbishop of Paris in 1762 ● Warned good Christians against the work, condemning it as “calculated to overthrow natural law, false, scandalous, full of hatred toward the church and its ministries, derogatory from the respect due to holy scripture and the traditions of the church” ● All copies of the book were burnt ● A warrant for Rousseau’s arrest was issued  Family portrait from 1700s: children shown as a status symbol (large families)

Exam 1 *Limiting the number of children didn’t occur until 1960s - culture change resulting from overpopulation research  1800s: Beginnings of Scientific Study of Children ● Charles Darwin in 1840s wrote:  A Biographical Sketch of an Infant ○ Documented the development of his son, William Erasmus (Doddy) ○ Argued that watching a child develop was like watching evolution occur ● Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) ○ Emergence of Psychodynamic Theory  1900s: Impact of Freud on Child Rearing ● Bottle vs breastfeeding ○ Formula became commonly available in the 1950s ○ Freud believed if babies oversucked they would become bad ● Toilet training ● View of child as “original sin” ○ Argued children were born evil (with id) - must let superego combat this ● Too strict = OCD, not strict enough = bad person  Scientific Study of Children ● 1904: Alfred Binet ○ Development of Intelligence Tests (IQ Tests) ○ Determined who qualified for free education ● 1920s: John Watson’s Behaviorism and “Little Albert” Study ○ John Watson was the first experimental psychologist ○ Baby generalized his fear to all furry animals  Life of the Child in the 1800s and early 1900s ● Despite the significant emergence of research, life for children remained harsh ○ Use of “monsters” to discipline children was common ○ In an old autobiography a schoolmaster proudly recounted how in his career he had “given 911,527 strokes with the stick, 124,000 lashes with the whip, 126,715 slaps with the hand, and 1,115,800 boxes of the ear” ○ During the Civil War, young children ages 8-10 played music on the battlefield to send signals ○ Coal miners: 13-14 years old, only ones that could fit into the small holes to place dynamite ○ Factories: 12-14 girls worked laboriously  1901: Labor law (limited child labor to 12 hrs/day and 60 hrs/week)  Pennsylvania Child Labor Laws (1939): Limited children ages 14-16 years old 9 hrs/day and 51 hrs/week (farms and domestic jobs not included)

Exam 1  1931: Parenting book very different from those found today (focused primarily on discipline)  1960s Impact of Benjamin Spock ● Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care, became the most popular parenting book in the country ● Children are naturally good ● Parents need to impose limits but not harsh discipline ● Importance of positive and constructive support ● Anti-Spock reaction in the 1980s ○ Parents blamed Spock for kids protesting during the Vietnam War  Dr. Spock’s Philosophy ● Dominated in the 60s and 70s ● Educational programs more flexible (ex. Montessori Schools) ● Parenting less strict ● 1980s and 90s: backlash against Spock philosophy ● 2001 passage of the No Child Left Behind Act  Backlash to Spock during 80s and 90s ● Educational programs became more traditional ● Political climate? ● Economic climate? ● Historically, attitudes toward children have been cyclical and influence by economic and political changes  Where are we now? ● Strong belief in early formal education ● Search for competitive advantage? ● Impact of technology ○ Access to more information ● Impact of brain science research ● Impact of pre-school care ● Impact of non-traditional families (gay parents)   

Exam 1

Methods for Studying Childhood Development  Why are some children more popular than others? ● Possible answers: ○ Behavior (towards others) ○ Activity ○ Independence ○ Confidence ○ Leadership ability  Contexts for Gathering Data About Children: Observations: ● Naturalistic Observation ○ Examination of ongoing behavior in an environment not controlled by the researcher ○ Particularly useful for understanding everyday social interactions ○ Ex. Psychologists sometimes observe family interactions around the dinner table, because mealtime comments can evoke strong emotions ○ Advantages: ■ Natural ■ Provide clues (starting point) for future research ○ Disadvantages: ■ May never observe important behaviors ■ Does not explain underlying causes ■ May be influenced by observer’s biases ■ Being observed may affect children’s behavior ● Ethnographic Observation ○ Observer immerses self as active participant in the group ■ For children: becoming a teacher, counselor, etc. ○ Ex. Studying effectiveness of community intervention ○ Advantage: ■ Very rich understanding of group ○ Disadvantage: ■ Easy to become biased ● Structured Observation ○ Often done with children ○ Observe how different kids and parents act in the exact same situation ○ Advantages: ■ Better control over situation (compared to ethnographic) ■ Can use a randomized sample to allow for generalization ■ More limited set of behaviors to observe ○ Disadvantages: ■ May never observe important behaviors

Exam 1 ■ Does not explain underlying causes Data About Children: ● Interviews ○ Structured interviews: useful when goal is to collect self-reports on same topics from everyone being studied ○ Clinical interviews: useful for obtaining in-depth information about an individual child ○ Advantages: ■ Allows insight about what participants (parents or kids) are

thinking about ■ Quick method to gather a lot of information ■ Like observation, gives initial insights ○ Disadvantages: ■ Participants may not report accurate information ■ Limited generalization ■ Limited causation ● Correlation Studies ○ Allows you to determine whether there is a  relationship among variables of interest ○ Ex. Is physical attractiveness related to popularity in children? ■ Could be tested using a rate of attractiveness and scale of popularity ○ Correlation coefficient: shows how related 2 things are ■ + = both scores go up or both go down ■ - = one score goes up while the other goes down *Goes from 0-1 ■ 0 = there is absolutely no relationship between the variables (you cannot predict one from the other) ■ 1 = the variables are completely related to each other (if you know the score of one variable, you can calculate the other) ○ Interpreting correlations ■ If you square the correlation it explains how much of the total variance of one variable is explained or accounted for by the other variable ● Ex. The correlation between SATs and Freshman grades is about r=+0.3 (hence, 9% of the variability of grades among freshman can be accounted for by knowledge of SATs) ■ Correlation does NOT mean causation ● Ex. Correlation between amount of ice cream sold on each day and the number of people who drown is about r=+0.9

Exam 1

● Ex. MMR Vaccine given at 2-3 years old (time Autism begins) = correlation of age ○ Correlations can be used to understand the stability of behaviors over time ■ Collect data from when kids are young to older in development and look at the relationship over time ○ Advantages: ■ Allows discovery of what variables are related to each other ■ Are particularly useful for understanding relative stability of behaviors over time ○ Disadvantages: ■ Correlation does not imply causation ● Experiments ○ Random assignment of participants to groups ○ Experimental control ○ Inference about causes and effects allowed *To prove causation, you need experimentation ○ Groups: ■ Experimental group: group of children in an experimental design who are presented the experience of interest ■ Control group: group of children in an experimental design who are not presented the experience of interest but in other ways are treated similarly ○ Ex. Delay of Gratification Study: the Marshmallow Test ○ Advantages: ■ Scientific control and rigor ■ Allows for the inference of causality ○ Disadvantages: ■ Setting may be unnatural and artificial ■ May not adequately duplicate the complexity of the world  Designs for Examining Development ● Cross-sectional designs ○ Different ages are compared at one time ○ Advantages: ■ Efficient way to compare behaviors at different ages ■ Primary tools for Developmental Psychologists ■ Cheaper and quick results ○ Disadvantages:

Exam 1

■ Does not allow for the study of stability or individual differences ■ Can be contaminated by cohort effects (the effects due to the participants having been born during different cultural times) ● Ex. Autism (impact of interventions) ● Longitudinal designs ○ Same children are compared over substantial time period ○ Advantages: ■ Allows for the study of change over time ■ Gives insights about individual differences ○ Disadvantages: ■ Are costly and time consuming ■ May have biases due to drop-out rates ■ May have biases due to repetitive testing  Concerns Unique to Developmental Studies ● Language limitations (phrasing and vocabulary) ● Lack of familiarity with tasks ● Response bias (prone to saying “yes” over and over) ● Limited attention spans ● Behavioral issues such as lack of cooperation ● Ethical issues and limitations  Society for Research on Child Development Code of Ethical Conduct (2007) ● Do no harm ● Obtain informed consent ● Preserve participant anonymity ● Discuss with parents relevant research information ● Work to counteract unforeseen negative consequences ● Correct inaccurate child impressions ● Explain main finding at developmentally appropriate level   

Exam 1

Nature and Nurture  Issues raised by Better Baby Institute Video ● Nature/Nurture ○ Believe intellectual development relies SOLELY on nurture ■ “Every baby can become a genius” ■ No genetic impact ● Is there a critical period before 5 years? ○ Infancy (0-3) is critical? ■ Early head start (government programs) ○ Is this period critical for learning language? ■ Language (2nd) can be learned after age 3 ○ Current view is that there are sensitive periods (range) ■ Outside of these it is harder, but not impossible ● Can early environmental stimulation increase brain growth? ○ The Better Baby Institute believed the brain grows like a muscle ○ Brain growth actually occurs all through development ■ Although a lot does occur during childhood ○ The brain learns to make connections and gets rid of unnecessary ones ○ Brain growth and pruning: ■ While environment impacts brain development, small differences in the environment may not have much impact on the brain ● What is good parenting? ○ Concept of parental sensitivity: picking up on baby’s cues, anticipating moves ● Role of the media and psychology? ○ Lack of good representatives in the public ○ Seems to be covered in the news by non-psychologists  Nature/Nurture Epigenetics ● It is the distinction between: ○ Genotype: the actual coded information contained in the genes and DNA (inherited genetic material) ○ Phenotype: what actually emerges or gets expressed (observed expression of genetic material) ■ Requires an environment ● Always an interaction between nature (genes) and the environment (nurture) ○ Genes can turn on and off based on the environment ○ This can happen at any time during development ■ Ex. puberty ● The term “environment” can mean many things and different environments can have different influences depending on the age of the person and the “genetics” at that time ○ Ex. adolescents and peers

Exam 1  What is meant by Nature/Nurture? ● Genetics may be strong, but the environment always plays a role ○ Ex. There is an environment to grow 10 fingers in the womb (mom’s diet and nutrition)  It's All in the Genes ● Chromosome: threadlike structure made largely of DNA molecules ● Gene: segment of DNA containing the code for proteins; determines our individual biolog development  Genetic Variability ● Every human (except for identical twins) is genetically unique ● Why is it important to have this genetic diversity? ○ Key to survival - evolution ■ Ability to survive in changing environments ● Ex. bacteria and viruses - keep reproducing (eventually leading to resistance)  What Causes Genetic Variability? ● Process of Meiosis ○ Formation of gametes (sperm and eggs) ■ Are haploids (23 chromosomes) ■ Meet and form diploid (46) ○ Random splitting of homologs ■ Result in different polygenic interactions between cells ○ Crossing over ■ Chromosome pairs align and cross-exchange genetic material then segregate into separate germ cells ● Which sperm fertilizes the egg ○ The mother can create 223 different eggs ○ The father can create 223 different sperm ● Mutations and chromosomal abnormalities ● Transcription errors ○ Deletions ○ Repetitions ○ Ex. Autism is related to age of father because of sperm reproduction (occurs because of a deletion)  Expression of Genotypes: the Epigenetic View ● The expression of phenotypes actively depends on the continuous interaction of the genotype and the environment ○ Genes can impact the environment ○ The environment can impact genes

Exam 1 ● ●

Genes turn on and off at various times Ex. Onset of puberty ○ Significant decrease in the past 50 years ○ Higher fat content (from diet) causes genes to fire early - interaction with the environment

 Penetrance Rate ● The probability that a genotype will be expressed can vary from 0% to 100% ○ For example, we all have genes for potentially fatal diseases that fortunately never get expressed because of the “environmental” conditions are not right ● Ex. Breast Cancer ○ Ideal environment: poor diet, smoking, birth control ○ ATM, CDH1, CHEK2, MRE11A, NBN, PALB2, PTEN are all genes that can cause breast cancer (through a mutation) but often never “penetrate” or get expressed ○ BRCA1 and BRCA2 are genes that, if they have a mutation will be expressed up to 80% of the time (Angelina Jolie)  Reaction Range ● The specificity of the gene can vary from narrow to wide ○ Environment has more of an impact on wide reaction ranges ● The range is typically not clear ● Canalization: there are range limits within the species ○ Set by genetics ○ Ex. say the reaction range for height was very short to very tall ■ High environmental dependence ■ Environment, however, cannot influence height past certain limits (due to genetics) ■ This maintains everyone is still HUMAN ○ Ex. pre-schooler are similar heights and weights ■ Allows them to interact ○ There are also mental limits (Baby Einstein?) ■ Range changes through age  The Epigenetic View ● Canalization: the genetic tendency to normalize development for specie survival ○ There are genetic li...