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Child Psychology Study Guide ...

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Chapter 1 1. Who is Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron? What was Itard hoping to learn by studying Victor? Victor, the “Wild Boy of Aveyron,” was abandoned by his parents because of innate mental deficiencies or if his development was stunted by years of isolation in the forest. Itard hoped to learn something about the role of the environment in shaping development. 2. How did developmental psychology emerge? In the beginning, the study of child development was influenced by philosophical questions; later, practical questions related to child welfare issues became important. 1. The English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) viewed the infant’s mind as a blank slate (“tabula rasa”); he believed in the importance of early experiences, especially adult guidance, for shaping children’s characteristics. The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), conceived of children as “born pure” and later corrupted by the influences of society; he believed that children passed through a series of qualitatively distinct stages as they developed. The ideas of these philosophers continue to influence our ideas about the nature of children and society’s responsibilities toward them. 2.

With the industrial revolution (during the 19 th century) in Europe and America, large numbers of children were working long hours in unhealthy factory conditions or in mines doing hard labor.

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Darwin’s theory of evolution (1859) focused interest on children, as children’s development provided evidence that humans are related to other species. (Darwin was a firm believer in continuity among species.)

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Wilhelm Preyer (1841-1897), a 19th century embryologist, wrote the first textbook on child development and developed a set of rules for observing children’s behavior (see Table 1.1 in textbook).

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Mark Baldwin (1861-1934) contributed the first notable stage theory. He argued that children’s abilities progress through a series of specific stages, taking on different forms and undergoing systematic changes before reaching their mature state (i.e., qualitative changes.)

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Yet, other developmentalists directed their efforts to practical applications. For example, Alfred Binet (1857-1911) developed the Stanford-Binet that was used to identify schoolchildren who could benefit from special instruction.

3. What are the four fundamental issues of developmental psychology? 1. Sources of development: What are the contributions of the body’s genetic program and forces in the environment in directing development? 2.Plasticity: To what extent and under what conditions is it possible for the course of development to change, as a result of either deliberate intervention or accidental experience? 3. Continuity/Discontinuity: To what extent is development a process of continuous, gradual change and to what extent is it characterized by more sudden, abrupt transformations? 4. Individual differences: How do individual differences develop, making each human unique? How stable are these characteristics over time? 4. Be able to identify the following terms: nature, nurture, critical periods, qualitative, quantitative, developmental stages, phylogeny, and ontogeny.  Nature = a person’s inborn capacities and limitations; the individual’s inherited biological predispositions.  Nurture = social environment’s influences on the person; the influences on the individual from the social and cultural environment, particularly the family and the community, and from the individual’s experiences.  Critical periods = times during which particular events must occur in order for development to proceed normally.  Qualitative vs. quantitative change o Quantitative Change: a process of continuous, gradual accumulating small changes, e.g., growth in number of brain cells, memory capacity, and growth in vocabulary. o Qualitative Change: a process punctuated by abrupt, discontinuous changes, e.g., crawling to walking, babbling to talking, and reasoning in concrete terms vs. reasoning hypothetically. Criteria of a developmental stage 1. Stages of development are distinguished by qualitative changes: transition from crawling to walking (a total reorganization of movement; child uses different muscles in different combinations). 2. The transition from one stage to the next is marked by simultaneous changes in a great many, if not all, aspects of child’s behavior: transition from infancy to early childhood  create grammatically complex utterances, talk about themselves as distinct individuals, and engage in pretend play. 3. When the change from one stage to the next occurs it is rapid: preoperational to operational stage (e.g., from not conserving to conserving; e.g., crawling  walking; typically a child goes from crawling to walking within the space of about 90 days). 4. The numerous behavioral and physical changes that mark the appearance of a stage form a coherent pattern. All of these behaviors happen at about the same time: walking, pointing, gazing, and first words.  Phylogeny vs. Ontogeny  Phylogeny (the evolutionary history of a species): “Are human beings distinctive?” There is disagreement about whether the process of evolutionary change is continuous or discontinuous. For example, we have much in common with other animals (such as, we share at least 99% of our genetic material with chimpanzees), but we also have some unique attributes, such as language and culture (the accumulation of knowledge, beliefs, and values).  Ontogeny (the course of development during an individual person’s lifetime): “Is individual development continuous?” o Some psychologists suggest that children pass through a set of qualitatively different stages on their way to maturity, thus emphasizing discontinuities. o Other psychologists stress underlying processes, such as learning, that remain the same throughout life. 5.

What is a theory? Know the grand and modern theories: Psychodynamic theories, Social learning theories, Piaget’s constructivist theory, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, Evolutionary theories, Information-processing theories, Systems theories, and Critical theories. What is a theory?—a broad conceptual framework within which facts can be interpreted. A. Grand Theories These theories laid the foundation for the modern theories of development.

1. Psychodynamic Theories Sigmund Freud was the first to develop a psychodynamic theory. Over the years, his theory has been adopted and modified by numerous developmentalists, including his own daughter, Anna. Erik Erikson is best known for modifying the theory to include culture, in addition to biology, in shaping the path of development. 2.

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Social Learning Theories Social learning theorist explore how certain experiences such as rewards, punishments, and other reinforcers change the likelihood of a child engaging in a particular behavior. Watson = a leading early theorist. (He wrote the “Manifesto.”) He believed that he could completely shape a child if he could get him/her when 1st born (i.e., doctor or lawyer, even beggar-man or thief). B.F. Skinner = another leading theorist; operant conditioning. Albert Bandura = One major contribution is the concept of modeling, the process by which children observe and imitate others. Another key concept proposed by him is self-efficacy, people’s beliefs about their own abilities in dealing effectively with the environment. Piaget’s Constructivist Theory (1896-1980) – emphasized children’s active role in shaping their own cognitive development. The most basic unit of cognitive function is the schema, a mental structure that provides a model for understanding the world. Piaget believed that children progress through a series of stages of cognitive development.  Sensorimotor (birth-2): Infants’ achievements consist largely of coordinating their sensory perceptions and simple motor behaviors.  Preoperational (2-6): Children often fail to distinguish their point of view from that of others, become easily captured by surface appearances, and are often confused about causal relations.  Concrete operational (6-12): Operational thinking allows children to mentally combine, separate, order, and transform objects and actions. Such operations are considered concrete because they are carried out in the presence of the objects and events being thought about.  Formal operational (12-19): In adolescence, the developing person acquires the ability to think systematically about all logical relations within a problem.

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Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory (1896-1934) – nature and nurture shape development, not by interacting directly, but by interacting indirectly through culture. One of Vygotsky’s most important contributions to understanding children’s development is his concept of the zone of proximal development—the gap between what children can accomplish independently and what they can accomplish when they are interacting with others who are more competent. Potential -----------------------Zone of Proximal Development Actual -------------------------Interaction = pr source of development Modern Theories 1. Evolutionary theories attempt both to explain human behavior in terms of how it contributed to the survival of the species and to address the ways in which our evolutionary past continues to influence individual development. Of course, evolutionary theorizing about children’s development has been around since Darwin, but has recently emerged as a dominant perspective in the discipline. Ethology focuses on the development of behaviors that contribute to the survival of the individual and, by extension, the survival and evolution of the species. (e.g., imprinting – by following the mother the baby chick is cared for and is able to survive; babyness features.) 2. Information-Processing theories are concerned with how information flows through the child’s developing mental system—how the child comes to process, store, organize, retrieve, and manipulate information in increasingly efficient ways. In the case of the mind, the hardware consists of certain brain structures and neural features, whereas the software consists of strategies and methods that individuals intentionally use to help them process and remember information (e.g., rehearsal, tying a sting to finger) 3. Systems theories envision development in terms of complex wholes made up of parts—that is, systems. Ecological Systems Theory – focuses on the organization of the multiple environmental contexts within which children develop.  Four nested, interacting systems/contexts: o Microsystem: includes all of the various settings that the child inhabits on a daily basis—the “face-to-face” settings, e.g., home, church, school, peer groups. o Mesosystem: the connective tissue that links the face-to-face settings to one another; interaction between Microsystems, e.g., parents’ involvement in their child’s school and its affects on child development; how church attendance affects child’s school behavior. o Exosystem: settings that affect but do not usually include the child, e.g., parent’s workplace and medical benefit plan may allow more paid leave when child born. o Macrosystem: ideology of culture; ideas, beliefs, and values of society, e.g., some cultures supportive of children’s needs with child protection laws, medical programs, etc.  The four systems are understood to interact and influence one another. 4. Critical theories address cultural biases that may be present in traditional developmental theories and that examine power relations between groups and the influence on development gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic class, e.g., feminist theorists argue that many traditional theories stress that children develop independence from others as a positive attribute of growing up (more masculine trait); however, interdependence and connectedness is important to the development of healthy relationships (more feminine trait).

6. Psychologists judge their findings according to four general criteria. Know these four criteria. 1 Objectivity – the gathering and analyzing of data should not be biased by the investigators’ preconceptions, e.g., Heisenberg Principle— even the act of observing, changes the organism (i.e., the speed that molecules move changes, when they are observed through the microscope.) 2 Reliability – consistency of research findings  Test-retest reliability (consistency over time) — when individuals score similarly each time the same measure is taken.  Interobserver reliability (consistency across observers) — when observations made by two or more researchers on the same occasion or by one researcher on two different occasions are in agreement.

3 Replicability – if other researchers who independently create the same procedures as an initial investigator did, obtain the same results. 4 Validity – the data being collected should reflect the phenomenon being studied; i.e., are you measuring what you think you are measuring? (e.g., intelligence tests) 7.

Know the various techniques of data collection that were discussed in class: naturalistic observation, experiments, and clinical method. Is there one best method? 1. Naturalistic observation: Behavior is studied in real-world settings. Observations may be made in a single setting or in many different settings. For example, a researcher may keep track of how many times and where a person performs a certain behavior (e.g., eat.)  This method of study is important to ethology (the study of the biological bases of behavior), ethnography (the study of the cultural organization of behavior), and ecology (the range of situations in which people act). Pro: may carry out research in individuals own habitat (developmental niche). Con: (1) people behave differently when they know that they are being observed; and (2) an observer cannot write down everything, so information is lost. 2.

Experiments Pro: can determine causation, because the investigator introduces a change into a child’s experience while holding all other factors constant. Con: experiments often involve artificial situations that may elicit different behaviors from that seen in natural settings; an experiment may lack ecological validity when it creates an artificial setting that diverges so completely from children’s natural environment that children behave differently. Main features:  Control  Causal relation: does DV (cancer) depend on IV (drug)? Or does the DV (test performance) depend on IV (type of music played)? Components of an experiment:  Independent variable (IV) – manipulated variable.  Dependent variable (DV) – outcome variable.  Confounding variables – contaminating factors; variables that cannot be controlled. o These variables may explain the variability found in the experiment just like the IV does.

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Establishing control:  Comparison groups (treatment—experimental group; no treatment—control group)  the control group is treated as much as possible as the experimental group except for not undergoing the change.  Random assignment: everyone has an equal chance of being in the treatment or no treatment group.  Single and double blind studies  Single: The experimenter knows which subjects get the treatment but the subjects do not know.  Double: Both the experimenter and the subjects do not know who gets the treatment. Clinical method: the interview is tailored to the individual subject; the answers to questions determine the direction the questioning will take.

Pro: can reveal a great deal about an individual’s behavior. Con: 1. may be difficult to arrive at general conclusions; may not be able to generalize to other people. 2. This method also relies a great deal on verbal expression, and therefore, may underestimate children’s abilities. Is there one best method? No, all methods can be used, but researchers need to know which method best fits the research question that needs to be explored. 8. What are positive, negative, and no correlations? Be able to provide examples. A correlation between factors may be observed; however, there is no way of determining which factors are causal. (A correlation is not the same as causation; a correlation does not establish that the occurrence of one event depends on the occurrence of the other.) r = +1.00, perfect positive correlation between two factors. EX: The more you come to class, the higher your scores on exams. r = -1.00, perfect negative correlation between two factors. EX: The more you eat before class, the less alert you are. r = 0, no correlation between two factors. EX: Hand size and intelligence. 9.

Know the various research designs: longitudinal, cross-sectional, cohort-sequential, and microgenetic designs. What are the benefits and shortcomings of each design? Longitudinal (Age Changes) Procedure:  Test same people at more than 1 age. Time involved:  Years Cost:  Expensive (need to start off with many subjects because of subject loss/attrition) Advantage:  Same individuals’ growth and changes are examined. Cross-Sectional (Age Differences) – most widely used design in developmental research. Procedure:  Test participants of different ages at 1 time. Time involved:

 One time Cost:  Inexpensive Advantage:  Takes less time to complete.  Requires less commitment from subjects. Problem with longitudinal and cross-sectional studies: cohort effect – may not generalize to other time periods, (because this group of people were born at about the same time and share particular experiences that are unique to those growing up during that era.) e.g., Great Depression, computer age. Cohort-Sequential Design: the longitudinal study is carried out over several cohorts (i.e., time periods). (This research design combines cross-sectional and longitudinal methods.)  Pro: helps to separate out cohort-related factors from changes due to age. Example: 1996 2 1998 2000

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Microgenetic Designs – focus on children’s development over relatively short periods of time, sometimes only a few hours or days (i.e., like a movie, a more or less continuous record of change.) e.g., child learning to add from higher number instead of counting from 1  6+2, counts from 6 instead of starting from 1 to get to answer of 8. 10. What is the central ethical tenet of all psychological research? 1. Freedom from harm. The central ethical tenet of all psychological research is: if a research procedure may harm anyone physically or psychologically, it should not be carried out. 2. Informed consent. Participants must voluntarily agree to be in the study. Confidentiality. Personal information obtained in the course of research must be kept confidential Chapter 3 1.What is a zygote and how big is it? Know what happens during the 3 different periods of prenatal development. The zygote develops from a one-celled organism that is 1/175 of an inch in diameter (the size of a period on a typed page) and weighs about fifteen-millionths of a gram into a newborn baby. It develops by passing through three periods of prenatal development: the germinal period; the embryonic period; and the fetal period. Each period is characterized by distinctive patterns of growth and interaction with the environment. A. The Germinal Period – ends with implantation in the uterine wall. The germinal period which begins at conception lasts until, 8 to 10 days later, when the organism is implanted in the uterine wall. As the zygote goes through the fallopian tube, the zona pellucida, which contains the zygote, is an envelope of thick molecules that divides, through the process of mitosis? These initial mitotic divisions are called cleavages. 1. Cell Differentiation In this process, cells divide 24 hours after conception at different rates (heterochrony), which results is different parts of the organism developing at different levels at a given time (heterogeneity). After the first few cleavages occur, a cluster of identical cells (the morula) form. By the time it reaches the uterus, the organism is a blastocyst...