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LECTURE 1 – WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY Goals of psych: 1. To describe how people and other species behave 2. To understand the causes of these behaviours 3. To predict how people and animals will behave under certain conditions 4. To influence behaviour through the control of its causes 5. To apply psychological knowledge in ways that enhance human welfare Applying psych to real world: e.g. cramming for tests. A common method for exam revision BUT from psychological study we know that cramming is not an effective technique because: a. It leads to fatigue b. It taxes your memory c. It can increase test anxiety d. All can negatively affect your performance (Sarason & Sarason, 1990) Instead, what does work is: Elaborative rehearsal (Craik & Lockhart, 1972) Focusing on the meaning of information and elaborating on it in some way, e.g.: - Organising and trying to understand material instead of just memorising - Thinking about how it applies to your own life - Relating it to ideas or examples that you already know Experiments show that elaboration is more effective than simply rehearsing/ memorising (Benjamin & Bjork, 2000) Six major perspectives on human behaviour: • Psychodynamic: the forces within • Behavioural: the power of the environment • Humanistic: self-actualization & positive psychology • Cognitive: the thinking human • Sociocultural: the embedded human • Biological: the brain, genes & evolution The psychodynamic perspective: • Behaviour explained by our personalities • Emphasizes the role of unconscious processes • Link between current events in a person’s life and those in their past (Pierre Janet, 1859-1947) • Sigmund Freud (1856-1939): - ‘Free association’ technique for treating phobias - Patients began describing painful, previously ‘forgotten’ childhood experiences - Symptoms often improved afterwards - Freud became convinced that an unconscious part of the mind profoundly influences behaviour - Developed a theory and form of psychotherapy called psychoanalysis: The analysis of internal and primarily unconscious psychological forces - Many of his patients’ free association memories involved experiences that were sexual in nature… - Led Freud to propose that we are born with powerful sexual and aggressive drives that are punished in childhood - This punishment teaches us to fear them/ become anxious when we are aware of them - We develop defence mechanisms to cope - e.g., repression: keeps ‘unacceptable’ impulses and memories at an unconscious level - Freud’s theory was very controversial - Strong opposition from many - Review of over 3,000 studies examining Freud’s ideas found support for some aspects of his theory, but others were not supported or contradicted (Fisher & Greenberg, 1996) - BUT his ideas stimulated research on topics such as dreams, memory, aggression and mental disorders PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE OVERALL:

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Humans are controlled by inner forces and conflicts Behaviour is caused by: - Unconscious motives, conflicts & defences - Childhood experiences - Unresolved conflicts

The behavioural perspective: • Focuses on the role of external or environmental influences as explaining our behaviour - Behaviour determined by habits learned from previous experiences and by stimuli in the immediate environment • At birth we are ‘blank slates’ and our behaviour is shaped purely by the environment around us • Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936): - ‘Pavlov’s dogs’ experiment, Sound of a stimulus (e.g., tone) paired with food - Dogs automatically learned to salivate to the sound of the tone - Association of one event with another – environmental influence BEHAVIOURAL PERSPECTIVE OVERALL: • Humans are reactors to the environment • Behaviour is caused by: - Past learning experiences - The present environment Humanistic Human as a free agent, seeking selfactualization Behaviour caused by: free will, choice & innate drive towards selfactualization

Cognitive Human as a thinker

Sociocultural Human as a social being, embedded in culture

Biological The human animal

Behaviour caused by: thoughts, anticipations, planning, perceptions, attention & memory processes

Behaviour caused by: social forces (social norms, interactions & group processes) in one’s culture & social environment

Behaviour caused by: genetic & evolutionary factors; brain & biochemical processes

Integrated perspectives: levels of analysis • The essence of each of the six major perspectives can be integrated to form the basis of how psychology is studied today • Three levels of analysis in modern psychology 1. Biological 2. Psychological 3. Environmental • We can understand human behaviour and its causes by examining all three levels Levels of analysis example – understanding depression • Biological e.g., genetic predisposition, chemicals in brain • Psychological e.g., negative thought patterns • Environmental e.g., experience of loss/ rejection Levels of analysis example – treating depression • Biological e.g., anti-depressant drugs • Psychological e.g., encouraging more positive thought patterns • Environmental e.g., addressing loss or rejection Psychology today: a science Biological psychology Cognitive psychology Developmental psychology Personality and individual differences

Behavioural genetics, hormones, neuropsychology, evolution Perception, learning, memory, thinking, consciousness Childhood, adolescence and lifespan development Abnormal and normal personality, intelligence, emotion, mood

Social psychology Research methods

Social cognition, attitudes, group processes, intergroup relations Research design, statistical analysis of data, methods

Scientific process Step 1. Research question Step 2. Develop hypothesis Step 3. Test hypothesis (conduct research) Step 4. Analyse data and draw conclusions Step 5. Report findings to scientific community Step 6. Further research/ replication – theory building Step 7. Theory tested by deriving new hypotheses & conducting new research Scientific process – an example (Darley & LatanÉ, 1968) Step 1. Kitty Genovese – nobody helped. Why? Step 2. Diffusion of responsibility? Greater number of ‘bystanders’ = decreased likelihood of helping Step 3. Create ‘emergency’ in controlled setting – manipulate number of bystanders & measure helping Step 4. Helping decreases as perceived number of bystanders increases – hypothesis supported Step 5. Findings submitted to scientific journal. Fellow researchers can test and expand hypothesis Step 6. Additional studies support hypothesis. Theory is developed – ‘bystander effect’ Step 7. The ‘bystander effect’ is continuously tested by novel research to this day OVERALL SUMMARY • Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and the mind • Goals of psychology: 1. To describe, understand, predict and influence human behaviours 2. To apply psychological knowledge to enhance human welfare • Six major perspectives in psychology: 1. Psychodynamic, behavioural, humanistic, cognitive, sociocultural & biological • Integrated to form three levels of analysis to understand & manipulate behaviour 1. Biological level 2. Psychological level 3. Environmental level • Key areas within psychology: 1. Biological, cognitive, developmental, personality & individual differences, social, & research methods • Scientific process involved: 1. Initial research question 2. Form hypothesis 3. Test hypothesis 4. Analyse data/ draw initial conclusions 5. Report findings 6. Further research & theory building 7. New hypotheses derived from theory LECTURE 2 – INTRO TO DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Developmental psychology = Understanding the changes in mind and behaviour that human beings experience throughout the life span. Will look at: Mother / child and family / child interactions: attachment, relationships, emotion, mental health Language and communication; cognitive development Sociocultural contexts Moral development; theory of mind Self, identity & gender Why study developmental psychology?  General interest – how do we develop into who we are?

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Helps our understanding of human nature Are we born predisposed to become who we are? What is the role of our environment in shaping individuals? Understanding childhood and development can have an impact on: Social policy Education systems Child welfare

Does developmental research require a different methodological approach compared to other domains of psychological enquiry?  Need to be more sensitive, ethical considerations- Little Albert  Adults more aware of their actions Periods of childhood development: 1. Conception and birth (prenatal) 2. Infant (0-2) 3. Early childhood (2-6) 4. Middle childhood (6-11) 5. Adolescence (11-18) Nature / nurture debate  “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist – regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations and race of his ancestors.” NURTURE (J.B. Watson, 1930, p.104)  London riots, were perpetrators born bad or victims of their environment? Deindividuation NURTURE  How much of our behaviour is due to nature, and how much to nurture?  Twin studies find behavioural similarities in those raised by different parents: nature?  There is a critical period for language development: nature?  Cortisol levels lead to social anxiety? NATURE or their anxious mums lead to social anxiety? NURTURE  Generally accepted there is an INTERACTION between genes and the environment, and both play a(n unequal) part Sociocultural contexts  We are members of a community: things that seem usual to us are not to other communities UNIVERSAL • E.g. Bedtime, co-sleeping, attachment, shame vs guilt  Childrearing practices are different today than when we were children, or our parents were children  SES (socio-economic status) accounts for a lot of difference within cultures: why? Spoilt child if rich? Higher status = more food = obesity? Access to schooling? Individual differences  Scarr’s (1992) four factors: 1. Genetic differences 2. Differences in treatment by parents and others 3. Differences in reactions to similar environments (temperament) 4. Differences in choices of environment (Child as Agent)  These interact: children with mild temperaments are treated differently to ‘difficult’ children; some children interpret an ambiguous situation with hostility; genetic sensitivities  E.g. those who can wait for the sweets go on to do significantly better as adults than those who couldn’t wait. Good to delay gratification!! (see Moffitt et al, 2011) A/typical development  Atypical development (e.g. dyslexia) can inform us how typical development (successful reading) occurs  Are they qualitatively similar (delay) or different (deviance)? Philosophical perspectives

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Plato (4th C BC) self-control and discipline are the most important goals of education = People born with innate knowledge Aristotle (4th C BC): concerned also with individual needs of the child = Knowledge comes from experience Locke (17th C): Tabula Rasa (blank slate) development reflects nurture. Goal: growth of character. Rousseau (18th C): Noble savages (children have innate knowledge of right and wrong, parents nurture will just confuse) Learning emerges from spontaneous interactions with objects and people. Allow unlimited freedom.

Historical Foundations of Modern Developmental Psychology  Current beliefs and opinions about children and development are quite different from those held in the past… but some early ideas continue to influence current theory and research.  Example of children depicted pre 17th Century as small scale adults in Western paintings Historical perspectives: What changed?  Move from an agrarian-rural based society to an industrialist society  Rise of educational institutions (new job market demands)  Smaller families, more intimacy and individuality (also in family roles)  Romanticism flourishing throughout Europe  The emergence of the scientific approach (around the middle of 19th century): - Darwin: theory of evolution and radical change in thinking about mankind. - Social reform - Industrial revolution Darwin’s approach  Darwin’s theory of evolution was possibly the trigger to set off an interest in the scientific study of development.  Revolutionised our understanding of human nature  Key message: Natural selection. - physical features of living things are selected over generations to be most adaptive to ensure survival in a given environment - In the same way behavioural features are selected Child development as a subject  Began around the end of the 19th C / start 20th C  Universities began to open departments, journals started  Binet started investigating children’s intelligence, and developing standardised tests  Hall started large-scale questionnaire studies into child behaviour  First theories based on empirical research emerged (well...) - Freud’s psychoanalytic theory –not really part of modern child developmental psychology, more focused on women & not v scientific as cannot test his ideas - Watson’s behaviourist theory - Though diary studies pre-date these by around 100 years! More recent influences  Evolutionary theory: - Bowlby (1950s and 60s) Role of mother and emotional warmth: explained failure to thrive in orphanages - Lorenz (1960s and 70s) looked at imprinting in ducks and geese, supported attachment theories - Harlow (1960s) monkey experiments supported Bowlby’s claims – comfort or food  Evolution primes us to behave in certain ways = NATURE  Learning theory and behaviourism: - Pavlov’s dogs (1890s; 1930s) - Skinner’s operant conditioning (1930s, 40s, 50s)  All behaviour is learned = NURTURE  Behaviourism is basis for many child-rearing practices today, e.g. Supernanny’s naughty step technique (Skinner), X sees the child as v passive, realistically child would have other thoughts, temperaments etc 20th Century Approaches: Piaget & Vygotsky  Piaget’s theory of cognitive development – NATURE&NURTURE  Vygotsky’s Socio-cultural Theory – NATURE&NURTURE

Piaget (1896-1980) *research*  The most influential child development theorist  Worked with Binet – interested in the systematic failure of certain items in tests  “Genetic epistemology” – the ‘origins of thinking’  Children think in qualitatively different ways, rather than quantitatively different Vygotsky (1896-1934) *research*  Also highly influential  Sociocultural contexts of development  Language as a structure to thoughts  Role of parents in supporting cognitive development - Joint attention - Scaffolding - Zone of Proximal Development – gap what a child can do on their own to what they can do w guidance and influence 21st Century: Developmental Science 1. ENVIRONMENT 2. BEHAVIOUR 3. COGNITION 4. NEURONS 5. GENES Why is all this useful?  Research in developmental psychology has led to changes in: - Social policy (SureStart, adoption, military) - Education (e.g. learning theory, dyslexia) - Law (e.g. Child witness interviewing, asylum seeker rights) - Clinical psychology (e.g. Attachment and depression, mother and infant units) Methods  Child research began with diary studies, a specific form of OBSERVATION  Interviews  Twin studies allow us to measure effects of genes and environment  Longitudinal research follows the same children - Also cross-sectional, cross-sequential, micro-genetic, correlation research Twin studies  Identical (MZ) twins compared to non-identical (DZ) twins  MZ share 100% genes, DZ share on average 50%  Therefore, comparing similarities between MZ and DZ indicates relative role of environment and genetics  E.g. Concordance rate is 40-60% for MZ, 10-20% for DZ  Assumption made: - Environments are the same for both - However MZ environments more similar than DZ? Measuring Behaviours  Preferential Looking Paradigm  Infant Eye-tracking  Infant EEG/ERP As children are preverbal Ethical Issues in Developmental Research  Due to their immaturity, children are especially vulnerable to harm.  Protection exists in a number of ways: - Disclosure – researchers can be asked to apply for a Police certificate

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Ethics Approval – Ethics committees ensure that studies do not put participants’ welfare at risk Informed Consent must be obtained from parents or guardian Personal Data Protection Act 2010 - participant details and test scores must be kept confidential, anonymous and secure

Take-home Messages 1. The concept of ‘the child’ has changed significantly over time 2. Many of the earlier theories/ideas about child developmental (Piaget, behaviourism, Freud etc.) are still influential to different extents BUT do not reflect current thinking within the field 3. ‘Developmental psychology’ as we know it now is a relatively young science, with specialist methods of research LECTURE 3 – PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT Development of babies 1 month – reflexes, able to move, eyes unfocused 4 months – baby focused on toy, able to make movements and act on the environment 6 months – holding objects, directed movement, sitting up by themselves 9 months – working out balance, using feedback from what their touching to help balance, not quite walking but goal in mind 24 months – trying to talk John Locke “Blank slate” aka “tabula rasa” supported by: William James (1950): helpless, passive newborn New-borns have preferences: Tastes which become familiar during pregnancy The sound of their mother’s voice over another woman’s The sound of their native language Music played during pregnancy Perceptual Development: Touch Rooting and sucking reflex – if you lightly touch a babies face, they will turn and find and then suck Adaptive behaviour (Darwin) as helps them in lactation Cross modal Ability to transfer info from one modality into another Perceptual Development: Vision and Touch Give an infant an object and measure whether they have held it before San & Streri (2007) habituated new-born infants (mean 41 hours old) to either a particular shape or texture – gave infants one object without being able to see e.g. cylinder (shape) then give 2 that they can see, one the same and another of a diff shape or texture e.g. prism or bumpy cylinder. Infants touched one of these objects without seeing them until they became bored with (or habituated to) the object then time holding the object would decrease Findings: R=habituated to touch and then able to tell the diff of new object between old and new object so have cross modal transferred as looking at novel one for longer L=habituated to vision, not showing transfer from vision to touch, if shown objects, can notice the diff between diff textures but not diff shapes

Perceptual Development: Taste

Infants can detect bitter, sour and sweet tastes at birth. Salty tastes are not developed at birth but sensitivity to salty tastes is present by the end of the first 3-4 months This is thought to be due to the development of the salt receptor More responsive to sweet as adaptive as sweet food tends to have more calories so better for survival so babies born w sweet tooth Perceptual Development: Taste: In a study by Mennella, Jagnow & Beauchamp (2001)… Mothers who were going to breastfeed were assigned to one of three groups: Group CW: Drank 300 ml of carrot juice 4 days a week for 3 weeks during the last trimester of pregnancy, drank water during breastfeeding Group WC: Drank water during the last trimester of pregnancy, drank 300 ml of carrot juice 4 days a week for 3 weeks during breastfeeding Group WW: Drank only water during pregnancy and breast feeding Infants were tested during weaning for their preference for a carrot-based cereal. Infants were coded for negative facial expressions (coder) and taste preference (mother) M o t h e r ' s R a t in g o f I n f a n t ' s L ik in g

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