Introduction to Developmental Psychology

Topic 1: Introduction to Developmental Psychology Research Methods

• Developmental psychology is the discipline that seeks to identify and explain the changes in behavior that individuals undergo from conception to death.
• Areas of change include physical growth, mental or reasoning ability, emotional expression, patterns of social behavior, and personality.
• Research questions in developmental psychology include:
  • What does the world look like to the newborn?
  • How does perception change with age?
  • Why do many 1-year-olds seem so attached to their mothers and so fearful of strangers?
  • Why are some people friendly and outgoing, while others are shy and reserved?
• There are two primary kinds of research in developmental psychology:
  • Basic research: Reverse engineering the way the world is now to understand underlying mechanisms.
  • Applied research: Interventions to make the world better.
• Both kinds of research are necessary and inform each other.

Topic 2: Developmental Research - Methodological Considerations

• Research design considerations:
  • Sampling bias: Is the sample representative?
  • Observer effects: Can the researcher's presence affect the results?
  • Selective attrition: Do participants drop out of the study, affecting the results?
  • Practice effects: Do repeated measures influence performance?
• Validity and reliability of tests:
  • Are the tests used to measure children's behavior valid and reliable?
  • Are the tests modified from adult tests, and if so, are they suitable for children?

Topic 3: Research Designs

• Cross-sectional design:
  • Different subjects are studied at different ages.
  • Advantages: Data can be collected over a wide age range in a short time.
  • Disadvantages: No information about past determinants of age-related changes; cohort variation.
• Longitudinal design:
  • The same subjects are studied at a variety of ages.
  • Advantages: Provides extensive information about individual development.
  • Disadvantages: Time-consuming, costly, and prone to subject loss.
• Longitudinal-sequential design:
  • Combines cross-sectional and longitudinal designs.
  • Advantages: More efficient than longitudinal design, reveals cultural/historical effects.

Topic 4: The Importance of the Early Environment

• Impoverished early environments:
  • Critical times in life: Early experiences have long-term effects.
  • Harlow's monkey experiments: Social isolation affects behavior, and the duration and age of isolation matter.
  • Orphanage studies: Severe social isolation leads to cognitive and social-emotional disabilities.

Topic 5: Orphanage Studies

• Goldfarb's study (1945):
  • Compared early placement of children in foster homes from orphanages.
  • Results: Early placement was associated with higher IQ and better cognitive and social-emotional outcomes.
• Dennis's study (1973):
  • Found that the age of adoption is inversely related to eventual IQ.
• English-Romanian Adoption Study:
  • Examined recovery in orphans following removal from impoverished circumstances.
  • Results: Catch-up was greatest for those adopted before 6 months, and cognitive impairment was associated with duration of institutional care.
  • Follow-up studies: Cognitive impairment, autism-spectrum disorder, ADHD symptoms, and lower self-reported emotional well-being were found in Romanian adoptees.

Topic 6: Post-Natal Depression (PND)

• Estimated to affect 20-40% of mothers.
• Effects on children:
  • Behavior problems, cognitive delays, and health problems.
  • Disturbed early interactions.
  • Increased cortisol levels, a stress hormone predictive of anxiety disorders.### Preschool Interventions
• At 21, individuals are more reactive to stressful situations, with a greater risk of anxiety and depression.
• Socioeconomic status (SES) affects every area of development, including cognitive, social, and emotional development.
• Lower SES children are behind their peers when entering school, and this gap does not improve over time.
• Preschool interventions are a cost-effective way to improve child outcomes, making citizens more productive and improving long-term outcomes.

Head Start Program

• Introduced in 1964, the program provides special early education programs to disadvantaged children.
• Goals include improving physical and mental health, enhancing cognitive skills, and fostering social and emotional development.
• Components include early childhood education, health screening, nutrition education, and social services.
• Results show immediate cognitive gains, but these are not sustained over time. However, non-cognitive gains, such as improved social competence, persist.

Perry Preschool Program

• The program focuses on preschool education and home visits to teach parents.
• Results show no permanent IQ gains, but better social competence.

Early Head Start

• Introduced in 1995, the program serves low-income pregnant women and families with infants and toddlers up to 3 years old.
• Outcome at 3 years: children show better cognitive and language skills, and parents are more emotionally supportive.

Abecedarian Project

• The program began in early infancy, with a random assignment of infants to intervention or control conditions.
• Results show benefits in language, social interactions, and IQ at 4 years, and these benefits persist into adulthood.
• Emphasis on language learning supports cognitive development.

Conclusions from Preschool Interventions

• Early intervention is effective in improving a wide range of skills and competences in deprived children.
• The intervention must begin early, preferably before 3 years of age.
• Parental involvement is required for success.
• An emphasis on language shows greater results.
• The intervention should be of sufficient quality.

The Importance of the Early Environment

• The early environment has a substantial influence on child development.
• Deprivation can cause deficits in cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development.
• The impact of deprivation depends on the time spent in this situation.
• The effects of deprivation can be overcome, and preschool interventions can help make up for SES deficits.

Constructivist Theories of Cognitive Development

• Piaget's theory is a form of interactionism called constructivism, which argues that children construct their own mental life.
• Children are born with no knowledge, but through their perception of the world and their actions, they construct their own knowledge.

Piaget's Stage Theory of Development

• Development involves changing underlying structures.
• The sequence of stage progression is invariant.
• Stages are universal, and both nature and nurture contribute to development.
• Children's thought is qualitatively different from adults.

Cognitive Development

• Piaget's theory: children's thought is qualitatively different from adults.
• Children are active constructors of knowledge, not passive recipients.
• Schemes/Schemata: mental structures that capture the common properties of behaviors, objects, and experiences.
• Knowledge, thoughts, and ideas develop through adaptation, which involves assimilation and accommodation.

Piaget's Stages

• Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years): understanding the world through hands-on, direct experience.
• Preoperational stage (2-7 years): development of symbolic thought, but thinking is unsystematic, inconsistent, and illogical.
• Concrete operations stage (7-11 years): child has mastered mental operations, such as decentring and reversible thinking.
• Formal operations stage (11+ years): ability to perform logical operations on abstract entities.

Criticisms of Piaget's Theory

• Underestimation of young children's abilities and overestimation of adults.
• Developmental sequences may not be universal.
• Children are constructivist, building understanding through exploration.
• Later work recognized adult limitations.

Developmental Psychology: Areas of Change

• From dependence to independence, or external regulation to self-regulation.
• The big general trajectory of developmental change, but why does this take so long?
• What are the mechanisms at play?### Cognitive Development
• Contemporary constructivist approaches to cognitive development:
  • Children are active and sophisticated in their thinking, even with limited self-regulatory abilities
  • Development is influenced by the flexibility of the human species, which is due to our prolonged "helplessness"
  • Self-regulation and independence require prioritizing goals, which guide self-regulation and have a plan to enact
  • Executive function, including self-regulation ability, working memory, inhibitory control, and mental flexibility, develops over time

A:B::C:D Analogies

• Piaget and Inhelder (1964): Preoperational children couldn't solve A:B::C:D analogies, which require mental operational thinking
• Goswami and Brown (1990): 3-year-olds can solve A:B::C:D analogies with relations they know, which is connected to working memory capacity

Contemporary Cognitive Theories

• Emphasize continuous development and the co-development of knowledge and executive function to support goal-directed behavior
• Development is influenced by the interaction of innate knowledge and experience

Social Development

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

• Sociocultural theory of cognitive development:
  • Children develop in a cultural context, which influences their mental life
  • The object of development is the child's culture
  • The mental life of a child is co-developed with the people around them
• "Child-in-activity-in-context" approach: look at the child's behavior in the context in which it occurs
• "Zone of proximal development" approach: consider the child's potential development level, which is influenced by guidance from more capable peers or adults

Bandura's Social Learning Theory

• Social learning theory:
  • Based on S-R theory, but considers social and cognitive variables
  • Learning results from experience and observation of consequences for others
  • Model of Reciprocal Determinism: behavior, environmental factors, and cognitive variables interact
• Influence of models: learned aggression, observational learning, and moral standards

The Development of "Theory of Mind"

• Theory of Mind (ToM): the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others
• Mike Tomasello: infants track other behaviors and intentions, and help based on perceived intentions and goals
• Positive benefits: prosocial behavior, such as sharing and helping others

Piaget and Kohlberg on Moral Judgment

• Piaget's Account:
  • Moral dilemmas: older children take intentions into account, while younger children focus on the number of broken cups
  • Two types of moral judgment: externally regulated (from 5 years old) and self-regulated (emerging from 8 years old)
• Kohlberg (1987):
  • Continued Piaget's stage approach to moral development
  • Life-span theory of moral development, with 6 stages
  • Based on research interview method involving moral dilemmas, such as the Heinz dilemma