Psych Book Notes - CHILD PDF

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Chapters 1-16 notes of the Developmental psychology book
isn: 9781259014543...

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Development Psychology Book Notes Chapter 1

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Child Development: focuses on the scientific study of systematic processes of change and stability in human children

The Field of Child Development -

“baby biographies” with Charles Darwin o Watched his son develop closely o Difference between his infant sons voluntary and reflexive motor responses

Periods of Development -

Divisions of the life pan into periods of development = social construction: a concept or practice that is an invention o a particular culture of society

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Five periods of child development (table 1.1 p.3): o Prenatal Period (Conception – birth) o Infancy & Toddlerhood (birth – 3 years) o Early Childhood (3 years – 6 years) o Middle Childhood (6 years – 11 years) o Adolescence (11 years - ~20 years)

Domains of Development -

Physical Development: Includes growth of the body & brain, sensory capacities, motor skills, & health

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Cognitive Development: Includes learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, & creativity

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Psychosocial Development: includes emotions, personality, & social relationships

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Each domain addressed separately, but some influence other

Influences on Development -

Individual Difference: differences among children in characteristics, influences, or developmental outcome (Darwin discovered)

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Heredity, Environment, & Maturation o Some influences are internal & driven by heredity o Other influences stem from outside the body, starting with the prenatal environment in the womb and continuing throughout life o Heredity: Genetic roll of the dice o Nature and nurture together, both effect o Maturation (of body & brain): the unfolding of a universal, natural sequence of physical changes & behavior patterns 

Emergence of abilities to walk & talk

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Seen clearly in early years

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Act together with environment (life experiences) and heredity (personal characteristics) 

Life experiences increasing role as they adapt to internal & external factors

Contexts of Development -

Family

o Nuclear Family: household unit generally consisting of one or two parents & their children, biological, adopted, or stepchildren. 

Most common family unit in US

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Now more diverse, divorce, step parent, gay etc.

o Extended Family: a multigenerational kinship network of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins & more distant relatives o Extended family in developing countries are less typical because of industrialization and migration to urban centers  -

More people living with extended family’s because it’s expensive to live

Culture, Ethnicity & Race o Culture: society’s or group’s total way of life, including customs, traditions, laws, knowledge, beliefs, values, language, and physical products from tools to artworks 

Culture is changing with how much contact we can have through social media to other cultures

o Ethnic Group: people united by a distinctive culture, ancestry, religion, language, or national origin, all of which contribute to a sense of shared identity & shared attitudes, beliefs, & values 

In large societies ethnic groups may also be characterized. By minority status

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Influence on composition of a household, its economic & social resources, way its members act to one another, food they eat, how they do in school, how fam members perceive the world

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Still end up learning language and ways of the majority

o 2.6% of the US population is of two or more races o Two races are more similar than the same race in a different area o Ethnic Gloss: over generalization that obscures or blurs variations within heterogenous groups -

Socioeconomic Status & Neighborhood o Socioeconomic Status (SES): based on family income, & the educational & occupational levels of the adults in the household 

Affects these processes & outcomes indirectly through the kinds of homes & neighborhoods people live in & the quality of nutrition, medical care, & schooling available to them

Children of Immigrant Families -

Children with illegal parents basically majority

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Most from Mexico (30%)

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Poverty is higher

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Affordable Care Act (ACA): access to health care for children in immigrant families

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20% - under age 18 in poverty

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40% - under age 18 in extreme poverty ($2 a day per person)

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Middle-lower income family’s not affected as much but some affect compared to rich

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Can damage children & families’ physical, cognitive, & psychological well-being

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Risk Factors: conditions that increase the likelihood of negative outcome o Living that way can affect physical health o The longer in poverty the worse it gets

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More family time than people not in poverty

Normative & Non-normative Influences -

Normative: Biological or environmental events that affect many or most people in society in similar ways (ex. Period after puberty, menopause when old)

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Non-normative: Events that touch only certain individuals o Historical Generation: group of people who experience the event at a formative time in their lives (1 or more cohort)

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Cohort: group of people born at the same time who experience similar influences (doesn’t have to have historical generation)

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Three types of influences: Normative history-graded, non-normative, normative agegraded

Timing of Influences: Critical or Sensitive Periods -

Imprinting: The result of a predisposition toward learning, the readiness of an organism’s nervous system to acquire certain info during a brief critical period in early life

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Critical Period: Specific time when a given even, or its absence, has a specific impact on development o Generally irreversible

o Result in abnormal patterns, not normal development -

Certain times in a baby’s development in the womb can be affected (if heart was already formed and developed something that would stunt that it wouldn’t affect unless it was before the heart was formed) o Most critical is the first trimester

Is Development Based more on nature or nurture? -

Developments begin with heredity (nature): inborn traits or characteristics inherited from a child’s biological parents

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a lot of other influences come from outside environment (nurture): the world outside the self, learning from experiences

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Work together though

Is Development Active or Passive? -

People are like machines that react to environmental input

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Operation of biological parts in response to external or internal stimuli

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Internally driven is an active development (child is hungry sponge)

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Some see children as active, they initiate events, internally force for change

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Environment does not cause development but it can enhance or hurt it

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Lock Believe Tabula Rasa: babies born like a blank piece of paper and environmental influences would shape them

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Active nature of development: Erickson’s psychosocial theory, Piaget’s theory cognitive development, & Brofenbrenner’s ecological systems theory

Is Development Active or Passive -

Passive: people are like machines that react to environmental input o Operation of biological parts in response to external or internal stimuli o If we know enough about the “machine” we could predict everything a person would do o Externally driven development

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Active: growing organisms that set their own development in motion o Environmental influences do not cause development it can speed or slow it o Mechanistic & organismic models o Rousseau: children born “Noble savages” who develop according to their own innate plan unless they become corrupted by society

Development Continuous or Discontinuous? -

Mechanistic Theorists: Believe in continuous change o Gradual and incremental change o Quantitative change: a change in a number or amount, like height, weight, size of vocabulary, frequency of communication

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Organismic Theories: Commonly endorse discontinuous change o Qualitative Change: Is change in kin, structure, or organization o Cannot be predicted easily o Stair step changes

Emerging Consensus 1. All domains of development are interrelated a. Walking, talking helps cognitive development & communication skills 2. Normal development included a wide range of individual differences 3. Influences are bidirectional a. Children affect the environment around them as much as the environment shapes them 4. Historical & cultural contexts strongly influence development a. Everyone born in different times & places 5. Early experience is important, but children can be remarkably resilient a. Traumatic incident may have emotional consequences but something like living in poverty can be overcame 6. Development in childhood affects development throughout the life span a. No matter how old people can have negative or positive changes Theories of Child Development -

Theory: set of logically related concepts of statements that see to describe & explain development & to predict what kinds of behavior might occur under certain conditions

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Five perspectives on Human Development (table 1.2) p. 13 o Psychoanalytic 

Freud’s Psychosexual theory; Erickson’s Psychosocial theory

o Learning 

Behaviorism & social learning

o Cognitive 

Piaget’s cognitive-stage theory

o Contextual 

Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory

o Evolutionary/Sociobiological 

Bowlby’s attachment theory

Perspective 1: Psychoanalytic -

Array of related perspectives, generally focused on the lasting effects of childhood experiences & unconscious drives & motivations

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Psychosexual & Psychosocial perspectives (Freud & Erik)

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Sigmund Freud: Psychosexual Development o Originated Psychoanalytic Perspective: view of human development as being shaped by unconscious forces o Personality composed of three parts: the id, the ego (develops first year of life), and the superego (develop age 5-6) o Newborns governed by the id (operates under the pleasure principle) o Development in five stages of Psychosexual Development: 

Oral (birth-1 year)

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Anal (1 year – 3 years) with hold shitting themselves

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Phallic (3-6 years) child attached to parent

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Latency (6-puberty)

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Genital (puberty – adulthood) sexual impulses from phallic stage

o Too little or too much gratification in these stages in risk of fixation o Made us aware of our subconscious thoughts, feelings & motivations -

Erik Erikson: Psychosocial Development o Modified & extended Freudian theory o Believed in active development o Psychosocial Development: covers eight stages across the life span 

Basic trust vs. mistrust (birth – 1 year): hope, develops sense of whether world is a good and safe place

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Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt (1-3 years): will, balance of independence and self-sufficiency

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Industry vs. Inferiority (6-puberty): Skill, learn skills of culture or face feelings of incompetence

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Identity vs. Identity confusion (puberty-young adulthood): Fidelity, determine sense of self

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Intimacy vs. Isolation (young adulthood): love, seeks to make commitments to others if fail suffer from isolation or self-absorption

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Generatively vs. Stagnation (middle adulthood): Care, establish guiding the next generation

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Integrity vs. Despair (late adulthood): Wisdom, achieves acceptance of own life, accept death

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Solves each “crisis” in life

o Balance of positive and negative for each trait

o In this chart social & culture makes it different Perspective 2: Learning -

Learning Perspectives: View of human development that holds that changes in behavior result from experience

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Long lasting change in development based on experience or adaptation to the environment

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Looking at learning from outside development perspective, related to their behavior

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Learning Theory 1: Behaviorism o Mechanistic approach o Observation of behaviors & belief in the environment’s strong influence o At all ages learn about world by reacting to aspects of their environment that they find pleasing, painful or threatening. o Associative Learning: mimicking what others are doing ex. Baby walking or talking 

Classical conditioning & Operant conditioning

o Classical Conditioning: learning based on association of a stimulus that does not ordinarily elicit a particular response with another stimulus that does elicit the response 

Ex. Dog salivate when bell is run before meat presented to them because they know what is coming

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Response to a Stimulus (after repeating it many times)

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Watson tried this on children to shape them

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Loud noise when he would touch the rat and it scared him then associated the rat with the loud noise every time after that

o Operant Conditioning: learning based on association of behavior with its consequences 

Ex. Baby learns babbling will make the mom come over & give attention

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Learns from consequences of “operating” on the environment

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Classical conditioning (“before” actions) Operant conditioning (“after” action)

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Skinner; Skinnerian psychology

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Reinforcement: process by which a behavior is strengthened, increasing the likelihood the behavior will be repeated 

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Most effective when it immediately follows behavior

Punishment: process by which a behavior is weakened, decreasing the likelihood of repetition 

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Positive and negative versions for both

Learning Theory 2: Social Learning (Social Cognitive) Theory o Cognitive processes expanded by Bandura o Reci Procal Determinism: Child acts on the world as the world acts on the child o Observational Learning: Learning through watching the behavior of others o We learn from watching then make it our own o Develop self-efficacy or confidence in their abilities

Perspective 3: Cognitive -

Cognitive Perspective: Piaget’s cognitive theory, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory & information-processing approach to cognition

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Jean Piaget’s Cognitive-Stage Theory: o Children come equipped with few basic capacities that allowed them to begin learning o Children slowly learn how to refine their movements and explore more o Cognitive growth: organization, adaptation, & equilibration 

Organization: tendency to create categories (birds) by observing the characteristics that individual members of a category (same kind of birds) o Schemes: ways of organizing info about the world, motor or mental in nature

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Adaptation: how children handle information they already know 

Assimilation: taking in new info and incorporating it into existing cognitive structures

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Accommodation: adjusting one’s cognitive structures to fit the new info

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Equilibration: Constant striving for a stable balance – motivates shift from assimilation to accommodation 

Ex plane = bird (assimilation) then they see differences (accommodation) later on

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Disequilibrium: the differences in objects (bird vs plane)

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Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory o Focused on social & cultural processes that guide children’s cognitive development o Think learning is social and collaborative (rest were all solo like development) o Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): imaginary psychological space between what children can do on their own and what they could achieve with another person’s assistance o Not a controlled experiment

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Information-Processing Approach o Explains cognitive development by analyzing the processes involved in making sense of incoming information & performing tasks effectively o The older you get the faster you process, the more complex and efficient processing o Stroop Effect: experienced reader reads word without realizing, (red in red is easier to identify than the word red that was colored green) o Can access cognitive processes even though they are internal

Perspective 4: Contextual -

Contextual Perspectives: development can be understood only in its social context

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Bioecological Theory: identifies five levels of environmental influence, ranging from very intimate to very broad: microsystem, mesosytem, exosystem, macrosystem, & cronosystem

o Microsystem: everyday environment of home, work, school, or neighborhood. Face-to-face interactions o Mesosystem: interlocking influence of Microsystems. Linkages between home and school (parent teacher conferences) or between family and the peer group 

Parents bad day at work might affect how act toward child

o Exosystem: interactions between a microsystem & an outside system or institution. Indirect effects, still have impact 

Mom not getting enough leave to spend a lot of time with their newborn

o Macrosystem: consists of overarching cultural patterns such as dominant beleifs, ideologies & economic & political systems o Chronosystem: represents the dimension of time, time goes and changes occur 

Changes in family, friends, employment etc.

Perspective 5: Evolutionary/Sociobiological -

Proposed by Wilson influenced by Darwin

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Focuses on evolutionary & biological bases of behavior

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See survival of species and adaptations throughout time

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Darwin’s Natural Selection theory o Organisms vary o Never enough resources for all organisms to survive o Individual differences in organisms are heritable

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“Survival of the fittest”

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Traits can be physical, behavioral, or psychological

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Ethology: study of animal species’ distinctive adaptation behaviors

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Evolutionary Psychology: applies Darwinian principles to the study of human behavior

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Cognitive adaptations: natural selection in humans o Most have a lot

Research Methods -

Theories help frame our thinking o Generate hypothesis: educated test that further research can test

Quantitative & Qualitative Research -

Quantitative Research: objectively measurable, numerical data that can answer “how much?” Or “how many?” For statistical analysis, scientific method, in co...