PSY200-03 Module 1 (January 10, 2025) PDF

MODULE 1: BASIC CONCEPTS AND METHODS Class #2: January 10, 2025 Time: 12:30–2:20PM  MODULE 1: COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES  1.1 Define the field of developmental  1.6 List and describe the research goals of psychology sc...

MODULE 1: BASIC CONCEPTS AND METHODS Class #2: January 10, 2025 Time: 12:30–2:20PM  MODULE 1: COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES  1.1 Define the field of developmental  1.6 List and describe the research goals of psychology scientists who study human development  1.2 Explain the importance of the lifespan  1.7 Describe descriptive (e.g., case study) perspective and experimental research designs, as well  1.3 Discuss past and present issues as their advantages and disadvantages regarding the scientific study of human  1.8 Summarize the importance of cross- development sectional methods in researching human  1.4 Summarize the three major domains of development. development  1.9 Identify ethical standards that  1.5 Describe the interactionist model of developmental researchers must follow development WHAT IS DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY? The scientific study of age- related changes in bodies, behaviour, thinking, emotions, social relationships, and personality. 3 FROM WOMB TO TOMB LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT QUIZ!  Go to: https://kahoot.it/ on your laptop or cell phone  Enter the pin  Choose a username 4  5 HISTORICAL PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON DEVELOPMENT Are children born with any kind of emotional and behavioural tendencies? Or are these tendencies all learned from experience?  6 HISTORICAL PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON DEVELOPMENT Historical Philosophical Child’s Inherent Parental Perspective Predisposition Responsibility Original Sin (200 AD) Sinful Intervene to correct (Christian doctrine) The Blank Slate (1600s) Neutral Shape behaviours (John Locke ) Innate Goodness (1700s) (Jean-Jacques Rousseau ) Good Nurture and protect  7 A BRIEF HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Darwin Kept baby biographies to better understand development of human species Hall Studied inheritance and used questionnaires to study large groups of children to develop age “norms” Gesell Studied maturation (i.e., genetically programed patterns of change) and stages of development Piaget Studied children’s cognitive development: how they think and solve-problems Ainsworth Pioneered research on infant attachment (i.e., how babies bond to caregivers)  PERSPECTIVES IN DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Lifespan Perspective Important life changes occur during every period of development (e.g., childhood, adolescence, etc.)  Patterns of change need to be interpreted in the context (e.g., families, schools, cities, etc.) and culture where they occur  Need an interdisciplinary approach to fully understand development (e.g., psychology, sociology, genetics, physiology, etc.) 8  9 PERSPECTIVES IN DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Interactionist Model  Theorizes that development results from complex reciprocal interactions between the forces of nature (e.g., genes) and nurture (e.g., social environment)  Strong nurture assumption when it comes to our psychology  10 PERSPECTIVES IN DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Interactionist Model Each child born with vulnerabilities (e.g., tendency toward emotional instability, alcoholism, allergies, etc.) and protective factors (e.g., high intelligence, better immunity, easy temperament, etc.)  Child’s vulnerabilities + protective factors interact with the environment (e.g., parenting styles) to produce unique outcomes for individuals  Dandelion vs. Orchid children (Boyce, 2019)  11 CONTINUITY & DISCONTINUITY IN DEVELOPMENT Continuity Discontinuity Quantitative: Change in Amount + Qualitative: Change in Type + Kind Degree Developmental stages unimportant Development stages important Continuous and/or Discontinuous? Friendships and Puberty DOMAINS OF DEVELOPMENT Physical Cognitive Socioemotional Changes in body Changes in Changes in size, shape, and attention, thinking, relationships, physical memory, problem social skills, characteristics, and solving, and emotions, and sense organs language personality 12  13 TYPES OF CHANGES Group-Specific Individual Universal Changes Differences Changes Developmental Developmental changes that Individual variations in changes that may be characterize most or the rate, extent, or group- or culture- all members of a direction of specific (e.g., species. (e.g., crawling development (e.g., retirement, cohort to walking, puberty, personality, eye colour, effects, religious sensory acuity, etc.) genetic disorders, etc. ) events, etc.)  14 CRITICAL VS. SENSITIVE PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT  Critical Period: limited time-frame when environmental input is necessary to develop some capacity or skill Monocular deprivation in infancy  deficits in visual acuity and depth perception (Huh et al., 2020)  Sensitive Period: Period when individual is particularly responsive to specific forms of experience or especially impacted by their absence Psychosocial deprivation in infancy  deficits in forming secure attachment to caregiver(s) GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH DESCRIBE EXPLAIN PREDICT CONTROL (WHAT IS IT (WHAT CAUSES (WHAT WILL (HOW DO I LIKE?) IT?) HAPPEN?) INFLUENCE IT?) Example: Depression in Adolescence 15  16 RESEARCH METHODS When studying age-related changes, developmentalists often use different research methods to study relationships between variables (i.e., characteristics that vary from person-to-person) + Age Agreeableness Donnellan & Lucas (2008) DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH: In-depth collection of data on specific individual or small group using CASE STUDIES interviews, questionnaires, and psychological tests  Example: Studying individuals with Capgras syndrome (prevalence ~0.12%)  Delusional disorder where patients believe that loved ones have been replaced by imposters (“doubles”) with a strong physical resemblance (Barrelle et al., 2018) 17 CASE STUDY DESIGNS Advantages Great for exploring something new, developing hypotheses, and studying unusual events or things that rarely occur Disadvantages Not very systematic, issues with representativeness, and reliance on people’s accurate description of their experience 18  Recording behaviour in natural real- DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH: world settings either overtly or NATURALISTIC covertly OBSERVATION  Could be small or wide age ranges  Example: Studying how children interact with each other in playground settings  More dominant 6-year-old children  more likely to socially exclude peers on playgrounds (Fanger et al., 2012) 19 OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH DESIGNS Advantages Affords greater ecological validity (relevance of findings to the “real world”) Disadvantages Time-consuming, observer bias, and issues of consent if research is covert 20  Participants of different ages studied at one point in time DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH:  Could be small or wide age ranges included in the same study CROSS-SECTIONAL  Large amount of data typically collected RESEARCH through surveys  Example: What is the relationship between age and risk-taking behaviour?  Risk-taking peaks in adolescence and declines into adulthood (Jackson, 2012) “Tide Pod Challenge” (2018) CROSS-SECTIONAL DESIGNS Advantages Simple, efficient, and cost effective Disadvantages Cannot capture change across time and cannot be used to establish cause-and-effect associations Issues with validity from: inaccurate recall, exaggerating for attention, intentional misrepresentation, and social desirability bias 22  EXPERIMENTS Experiment: carefully controlled artificial situation that allows researchers to study cause-and-effect relationships Independent Dependent The researcher manipulates one Variable (IV) Variable (DV) (independent) variable under controlled conditions and observes “The cause” “The effect” whether any changes occur in a second Manipulated Measured (dependent) variable as a result Predictor Outcome  24 THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD CONT’D Research Question: Does attending a weekly goat yoga class improve mood compared to no goat yoga? IV = ? Whether people wore a “lucky shirt or not DV = ? Test scores or Condition #1 Condition #2 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN CONT’D Advantages Examines cause-and-effect relationships between variables Disadvantages Usually an artificial context, requires control of extraneous variables (i.e., variables other than the IV and DV), unethical to address many research questions, and we cannot randomly assign people to different age groups 25  26 THAT’S IT FOR Next Class: Tuesday, Jan 14 (4:30- 5:20PM) TODAY!  Finish Module 1 + Start Module 2  Homework: Download/read course outline and section syllabus Buy textbook + read Chapters 1-2 Rubric for Assignment #1 – TED Talk Response available on iLearn