Developmental Psych Notes PDF

Wk5-8: Developmental Psychology Week 5 Lecture 1 Themes and Methods in Developmental Psychology Nature vs Nurture Importance of Early Experience Critical Periods? Develop...

Wk5-8: Developmental Psychology Week 5 Lecture 1 Themes and Methods in Developmental Psychology Nature vs Nurture Importance of Early Experience Critical Periods? Development: Continuous or Stage-Like Development: Universal or Culturally-Specific Studying Development Research Designs Developmental methods Lecture 2 Freud and Piaget Freud Piaget Stage Theory of Cognitive Development Sensorimotor Period 02 years) Preoperational Stage 27 years) Egocentrism Centration Concrete Operational Stage 712 years) Formal Operations 12 Years) Review of stages Misconceptions Piagetʼs Legacy Week 6 Week 7 Biological Development and Cognitive Development Lecturer: Dr Seamus Donnelly Week 5 Lecture 1: Themes and Methods in Developmental Psychology What is developmental psycholgoy? Wk58 Developmental Psychology 1  change across the lifespan developmental psychologists study change at every level of analysis in psychology describe typical and atypical developmental processes Controversies nature vs nurture critical periods continuous vs stage-like development universal or culturally specific Nature vs Nurture Nature: development proceeds according to a genetically-programmed, innate, schedule. development is maturation - the unfolding of innatre abilities according to genetic programs motivated by examples of biological maturation (e.g., secondary teeth) Evidence: many behaviours appear to follow fixed schedules Nurture: childrenʼs development is shaped by their environment most behaviours are the outcome of environmental input and some general learning mechanisms Evidence: even young infants can be very powerful learnings both inside and outside the womb Whereʼs the controversy? at the extreme, nature arguments imply immutability; nurture arguments imply a child can do anything “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and Iʼll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist – doctor, lawyer, artist... even beggar-man and Wk58 Developmental Psychology 2  thief, regardless of his talents, tendencies, abilities, vocations and race of his ancestors.ˮ  J.B Watson Little Albert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt0ucxOrPQE In most circumstances, the most relevant question is not “nature or nurture?ˮ but “how do nature and nurture interact?ˮ Importance of Early Experience i.e. with language, social interactions Victor:  12 yo boy who emerged out of the forest in France in about 1800 appeared to have been there alone for quite a long time, very little interaction w/ others wasnʼt able to speak, have normal social interactions w/ others Genie: discovered age 13 in 1970 parents had locked her in a room for several years, forbade people from interacting with her artificially restricted social interact, very little exposure to language Teachers and researchers tried to teach both local language, social cues etc; both failed in particular to develop language Critical Periods? critical Periods in Biology - an environmental stimulus has an effect in a specific developmental time window imprinting (gees in the first hour after theyʼre born) foetal development; certain toxins negatively impact foetal development, but only within a very narrow time window Critical periods in psychology? case studies too unclear to identify organic problems Wk58 Developmental Psychology 3  not generalisable cause and effect is unclear very little evidence of true critical periods, but there are sensitive periods periods in which particular stimuli have a stronger effect children who learn foreign languages at a young age tend to reach a higher level of proficiency Development: Continuous or Stage-Like is development a gradual, continuous process that proceeds by incremental quantitative change or does it involve distinct steps (discontinuity). Wk58 Developmental Psychology 4  Rule 1 sort according to colour Rule 2 sort according to shape children introduced to rule 1; ages 3 and 5 both able to follow this rule then introduced to rule 2; 5 year olds able to inhibit previous response to follow rule 2, whereas 3 year olds unable to do so, even when they clearly understand rule 2 appears to show a big jump in inhibition skills between ages 3 and 5 does this reflect discontinuity? could reflect a new ability to inhibit (suggests stage-like) could reflect a threshold effect  3 year olds have some inhibition, but donʼt yet meet the threshold to complete this task? (suggests Wk58 Developmental Psychology 5  continuous) could measure this by introducing another test that requires less inhibition Development: Universal or Culturally-Specific is development the same in children across the world? Universal development: same pattern of development found in all children - it just looks different in different cultures. Culturally-mediated approach: aspects of the social and physical environment lead to different developmental outcomes. physical play vs pretend play → physical play is universal across the world, the type and frequency of pretend play differs across cultures Studying Development Research Designs Wk58 Developmental Psychology 6  Cross-sectional studies: compare groups of different ages on variable of interest easy to study development by comparing groups at different ages; e.g. comparing working memory of children at ages 4, 5, 6, 7 assumes age is a proxy for development group differences are suggestive but donʼt tell us how development proceeds assumes that entire sample has the same experience Wk58 Developmental Psychology 7  Cohort Effects cross sectional designs are vulnerable to cohort effects does working memory continue improving? or is this due to different childhood environments? Longitudinal Studies assess same individuals across time: allows age-related changes rather than age differences Strength: allows each participant to be their own control can also ask, why are some participants changing over time and others not? but canʼt tell if its due to changes in kidsʼ development or changes in the environment during that time window Sequential Studies minimising cohort effects by studying multiple cohorts longitudinally very strong research design for studying developmental psychology Advantage: can see effect of environmental changes more easily by comparing the cohorts (i.e. environmental change in 2015 would effect cohorts 2 & 3 but not 1 Wk58 Developmental Psychology 8  Why not always do sequential studies? Wk58 Developmental Psychology 9  quite rare in developmental pyschology incredibly expensive incredibly time consuming longitudinal studies are more common but are also quite resource intensive cross sectional studies are less resource-intensive and are, therefore, a better place to start even though a weaker design, easy way to start studying phenomena Developmental methods child observed (with or without adult) in various situations used for assessment and diagnosis Experiments: endless variety of experimental techniques explicit - overt responses i.e. task w/ sorting colours and shapes implicit - covert (often physiological) responses i.e. asking children to group words into semantically similar categories https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYtNk0BotRE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDEHrhGzu8 Archival Research large data sets are available on the web Big Data sets: researchers sharing and pooling information to get more reliable data can be useful but limited in scope Questionnaire Methods young children: parent-report Wk58 Developmental Psychology 10  older children: self-report good way to collect large amounts of data data often answers general rather than specific developmental questions Case Studies detailed observations of one child very common in the history of the discipline Darwin, Piaget) useful in case of disorders Revision Questions to think about  What are some of the key controversies in developmental psychology?  What are the strengths and limitations of cross sectional, longitudinal and sequential designs?  What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of explicit and implicit experimental tasks? Lecture 2: Freud and Piaget Freud historically very significnat Austrian physician 18561939 founding father of psychoanalysis; one of the first forms of talk therapy a true developmentalist had a stage theory of development tha the used to explain certain neuroses Freudʼs Psychosexual Theory of Personality Development Wk58 Developmental Psychology 11  though vast majority of our ego was not consciously available to us ID entirely unconscious; wants pleasure, doesnʼt care about the consequences at birth, focus of all energy (libido). directs energy to different parts of the body in pre-programmed states unconscious pleasure seeker EGO rational, partly conscious mechanism that aims to direct energy into socially acceptable activities SUPEREGO internalised cultural ideals: morals, judgements etc. freud thought that development is a balancing act between these three forces when they become unbalanced, leads to neurosis Freudʼs theory is a stage theory; believed that development occurred in discrete stages discrete stages of development from birth to puberty and onwards believed that events within these stages could lead to predictable results in an individualʼs adult psychology Wk58 Developmental Psychology 12  i.e. if children were overstimulated or understimulated in oral stage (overfeeding, weening too early), they would develop an oral fixation (smoking, over drinking) not a theory that people hold today, but logic is very developmental Stage Age Oral Birth  1 year Anal 1  3 years Phallic 3-to-6 years Latency 6 years to puberty Genital puberty onwards Freudʼs methods while Freudʼs theory was developmental, he worked only with adults was a physician, so worked backwards with his patients to study their childhoods he believed thoughts were causally related; by observing thoughts you could observe their causes free association dream analysis Freudʼs theory doesnʼt lend itself to scientific hypotheses hard to operationally define a lot of these variables BUT a very influential approach Piaget most significant figure in developmental psychology First paper (on development of molluscs), aged 10, PhD aged 22 influenced by biologists, as well as European psychologists such as Binet and Freud Binet developed first IQ test, Piaget worked with him and became very interested in types of errors children were making on these tests; Wk58 Developmental Psychology 13  thought these errors would be revealing about underlying psychology of those children adapted Freudʼs stage theory; Freud → distinct stages of personality development, Piaget → distinct stages of cognitive development interested in biology, especially evolutionary biology understood that an organismʼs physical characteristics were a reflection of adaptations to their physical environment thought that cognitive development was similar; mind interacts w/ environment, adapts and gets more complex and structured over time Constructivism children are mentally and physically active from birth, and it is this activity which drives development Constructivism: children are constantly constructing a model of the world, on the basis of experience. Child as a scientist: children generate hypotheses, perform experiments, and update their hypotheses on that basis. believed children informally experiment with the world to develop causes and effects Wk58 Developmental Psychology 14  Key concepts: intelligence is an active adaptation to the environment analogised evolution of organisms to their environment (i.e. from single celled organism to complex mammal) to the development of the brain over a lifetime Wk58 Developmental Psychology 16  Children built knowledge structures (schemas) by three different processes: Assimilation: incorporation of incoming information into existing concepts Accommodation: alternation of concept in response to new experience Equilibration: process by which children strike a balance between assimilation and accommodation. Stage Theory of Cognitive Development Qualitative change: children at different ages think in different ways for instance, children initially conceive of morality in terms of consequences and only later in terms of intent. who is naughtier, a boy who accidentally broke a whole jar of cookies or a boy who stole one cookie? younger children will say the first boy broad applicability: style of thinking of each developmental stage is relevant to a broad range of domains (e.g., reasoning, mathematics, judgment). invarient sequence: children pass through stages in the same order. universality: applies children everywhere (with differences in timing of stages → between individual children, diff cultures etc) Stage of Development sensorimotor stage 02 years) childʼs intelligence/reasoning is entirely sensory/motor the world to them = their current sensory experience only way or reasoning about that world is through motor routines didnʼt think they had cognition pre-operational stage 27 years) have mental representations about the world → understand that things exist independent of their current sensory experience Wk58 Developmental Psychology 19  have a lot trouble mentally manipulating those representations, reasoning about them concrete operational stage 712 years) beginning to mentally manipulate objects reasoning is restricted to very concrete settings understanding concrete concepts but not formal abstract concepts have trouble with hypothetical reasoning, deductive reasoning etc formal operational stage 12 stages) abstract, hypothetical and formal thought Sensorimotor Period (0-2 years) understanding of the world limited to infantʼs immediate sensory and perceptual experience childrenʼs earliest, innate schemas were reflexes, such as sucking and grasping hypothesised that infants didnʼt understand objects exist when theyʼre not looking at them (no object permanence) SENSORIMOTOR STAGES Substage 1 01 months): modification of innate reflexes innate reflexes are modified (or accomodated) to fit various objects sucking reflex is modified to fit objects first example of accomodation Substage 2 14 months): primary circular reactions repetition of initially random movements that lead to unexpected pleasant outcomes accidentally touch moth → sucking Substage 3 48 months) Secondary circular reactions. Wk58 Developmental Psychology 20  repetitive event that leads to external action (dropping toys from high chair). “procedures for making interesting sights lastˮ object permanence develops. Substage 4 812 months): infants display first intentional behaviour - responding to oobjects that might obstruct goals A-not-B error: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhHkJ3InQOE Substage 5 1218 months): Tertiary circular reactions deliberate trial and error experimentation creatively dropping of toys Substage 6 18  24 months): able to create mental representations outside sensory experience semiotic (symbolic) function symbolic play, deferred imitation Preoperational Stage (2-7 years) mix of striking cognitive acquisitions and fascinating limitations period of rapid symbolic development language development drawing development Behaviour marked by egocentrism and centration centration; overly focused on a perceptually salient dimension of experience Drawing Development Scribbling (ages 24 fortuitous realism (realism may be accidental) pre-schematic stage (ages 47 failed realism - elements unrelated/unconnected intellectual realism - children draw what they “knowˮ Wk58 Developmental Psychology 21  Schematic stage (ages 89 visual realism - children draw what they “seeˮ Wk58 Developmental Psychology 22  Egocentrism tendency to perceive the world solely from their own point of view 3 mountain task : extends to communcation children often donʼt understand that conversation requires common ground (i.e. they assume knowledge of others) extends to reasoning: Adult: any brothers or sisters? 3yo: a 2 month old brother Adult: how does he behave? 3yo: he cries all night adult: why do you think that is? 3yo: he probably thinks heʼs missing something on television Wk58 Developmental Psychology 26  Centration the tendency to focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event which row has more coins, or are they the same? children insisted that glass C has children in pre-operational more water, even though theyʼve stage tend to think that seen the water being poured bottom row in b has more coins Criticisms: overstated breadth of domains method: these tasks may be quite difficult for children for reasons independent of centration → require fairly complex verbal responses to fairly complex verbal instructions i.e. do children understand “how longˮ, “how manyˮ → are they limited by cognifitve abilities or linguistic comprehension? Concrete Operational Stage (7-12 years) Wk58 Developmental Psychology 27  children begin to reason logically about concrete features of the world can apply “operationsˮ to representations pass conservation tasks reasoning is limited to concrete situations; still poor at abstract reasoning i.e. pendulum task children given frame, sets of strings, and weights task is to conduct experiments to determine which variables affect time it takes to complete arc How children go about solving this problem is more important Children in CO stage often perform biased experiments that confirm initial hypotheses Formal Operations (12+ Years) characterise by ability to think abstractly or hypothetically in pendulum experiment, children in FO stage are aware that all variables can have an influence. test this systemically. reasoning about the world is not limited to concrete experience. Review of stages Stage Limitation Major Achievement Understanding of the world restricted to Representational/symbolic Sensorimotor 02 sensorimotor thought → experience Thought is Operations applied to Preoperational 27 representational but concrete representations static and centred Thought is more Development of formal Concrete Operational 712 dynamic, but concrete operations Formal Operations 12 Formal reasoning (e.g., hypotheticals, Wk58 Developmental Psychology 28  deductive reasoning) Misconceptions one misconception of Piaget is that thtese stages reflect biological maturation the invariant sequence reflects the logical necessity of completing one before the other concrete reasoning is a prerequisite to formal reasoning Recall that Piaget was a constructivist. He thought children constructed this increasingly abstract model of the world. Piagetʼs Legacy piaget left an indelible footprint on developmental psychology. many aspects of theory debated today stage-like versus continuous development childrenʼs active construction of knowledge childrenʼs symbolic understanding of the world but there are some weaknesses Weaknesses: Limitation: Methods Piagetʼs methods understated childrenʼs knowledge → doesnʼt consider that children could be limited by motor responses Wk58 Developmental Psychology 29  Week 6: Week 7: Biological Development and Cognitive Development higher order cognitive abilities allowing us to inhibit distracting information and impulses switch between rules actively maintain attention Wk58 Developmental Psychology 30  develops continuously across childhood relevant to both “hotˮ emotionally salient tasks, and “coolˮ less emotionally salient tasks. hot i.e. trolley problem - deciding who to kill cool (less emotionally salient) → deciding to use a fork or a spoon Delay of Gratification young children ahve difficulty with delay of gratification ability to suppress impulses for desired object/activity evident in children around age 4 to 6 Instant Gratification kids with marshmallows Theory of Mind the ability to attribute mental states (beliefs, desires, and intentions) to oneself and to others. to understand that others have mental processes and perspectives that are different from our own Prerequisite for perspective taking and for navigating our social environment develops around the age of 45 years Attachment Theory: attachment: enduring ties of affection that children form with caregiver attachment relationships are formed on the basis of contact comfort famously shown through harlowʼs monkeys monkeys spent 22 hours a day with the cloth mother even through the wire mother provides food Harry Harlow showed through his work with rhesus monkeys that both love and comfort were non-physical needs. Harlow's Wk58 Developmental Psychology 31 03/06/2024, 16:12 Developmental psychology https://www.remnote.com/w/6542124793cc11b8dc4e950c/Developmental-psychology-GXprsGMbf6pJT3gUQ 1/21  attachment theory postulated that infants are attached to their mothers for emotional reasons, not just physical ones. 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