University of Malta Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) Developmental Psychology I PDF

UNIVERSITY OF MALTA Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY I PSY1622 TOPIC 1: Basic Issues in the Study of Development Ms. Jo Christine Scicluna  Plan of Topic 1 ❑ Introduction to developmental psychology ▪...

UNIVERSITY OF MALTA Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY I PSY1622 TOPIC 1: Basic Issues in the Study of Development Ms. Jo Christine Scicluna  Plan of Topic 1 ❑ Introduction to developmental psychology ▪ History ▪ Basic issues (perspectives on development) ❑ Theories of development ❑ Research methods in child development  READINGS ❑ Relevant chapter/s as per textbooks. ❑ Johansson, A. (2003). The New York Times. https://search- proquestcom.ejournals.um.edu.mt/docview/4323 17422/fulltext/24DEF806A8904040PQ/1?accou ntid=27934 INTRODUCTION TO DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY: History  CHILD DEVELOPMENT AS A SCIENCE ❑ Parental pre-occupation with “expert” child rearing started in the early 20th century, when magazines starting publishing articles on child-rearing that referred to theories such as Freud’s. Parents started turning to paediatricians and psychologists for advice, rather than to grandparents and older adults. ❑ John Watson (1878 – 1958), a behaviourist, was one of the first experts. He advocated rigid feeding schedules for infants and an orderly approach to child rearing, going against American parenting traditions. ❑ Dr. Benjamin Spock’s (1903 – 1990) radically different views ebbed Watson’s popularity, becoming fashionable in the 1950s. Influenced by Freud, he urged parents not to engage in conflicts over issues such as weaning and toilet training, and to display affection to their children. ❑ Today Watson’s views are seen as emotionally cold and excessively rigid, while Spock’s recommendations as overly indulgent. Parents are increasingly turning to the internet for help, where no single “expert” voice predominates. WHAT DOES DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY STUDY? ❑ Developmental science seeks to identify variables that influence development and to explain how they work together to shape an individual’s life. Scientists develop theories and conduct research aimed at describing, explaining, and predicting age-related changes in behaviour, thinking, emotions and social relationships.  CHILD DEVELOPMENT: A DEFINITION ❑ Development is defined as orderly and relatively enduring changes over time in physical and neurological structures, thought processes, and behaviour. ❑ In the first 20 years of life, these changes usually result in new, improved ways of reacting, that is in behaviour that is healthier, better organised, more complex, more stable, more competent or more efficient. We speak of advances from creeping to walking, from babbling to talking, or from concrete to abstract thinking, as a result of development. In each such instance, we judge the later-appearing state to be a more adequate way of functioning than the earlier one. ❑ There are 3 broad goals in the study of child development: 1. To understand changes that appear to be universal (those that occur regardless of culture or personal experience). 2. To explain individual differences (e.g. why infants react in particular ways to their mother leaving the room, while others play happily). 3. To understand how children’s behaviour is influenced by the environmental context or situation (contexts include immediate environment, as well as wider social and cultural influences). Mussen, Conger, Kagan, & Huston (1990).  INTRODUCTION TO DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY: Perspectives on Development 1. Nature and Nurture ❑ Nature refers to hereditary information which we receive from our parents. Nurture refers to complex forces of the physical and social world that influence our biological makeup and psychological experiences before and after birth (e.g. language development). ❑ The idealists and the rationalists, principally Plato and Descartes, believed that at least some knowledge is inborn. On the other hand, a group of British philosophers called empiricists, including John Locke, insisted that at birth the mind is a blank slate (tabula rasa). Hence, knowledge is created by experience, the result of external, environmental factors acting on a child, whose only relevant internal characteristic is the capacity to respond. 2. Stages and Sequences ❑ Another big issue in developmental psychology is the continuity-discontinuity issue. This basically answers the question, “Is development continuous or discontinuous?” Continuous development implies that it is a cumulative process of gradually adding more skills to already existing ones (i.e. a quantitative change). Discontinuous development states new and different ways of responding to the world emerge at particular times, in pre-determined stages (i.e. a qualitative change). 3. Internal and External Influences on Development (Modern developmental psychology) ❑ Maturation: Arnold Gesell coined the term maturation to describe genetically programmed sequential patterns of change. Any maturational pattern is universal, sequential and relatively impervious to environmental influences. A maturationally determined behaviour happens regardless of training or practice. ❑ The Timing of Experience: Specific experiences interact with maturational patterns in complex manners. Hence, both timing and experience may impact on development, leading to the concepts of critical and sensitive periods in development. ❑ A critical period is defined as any time period during development when an organism is especially responsive to and learns from a specific type of stimulation. The same stimulation at other points has little or no effect (e.g. the 15 hour period wherein ducks may develop a following response to any moving or quacking object). A sensitive period is defined as any time period during which a particular experience can best incorporated in the maturational process (e.g. language development in infancy). ❑ Inborn Biases and Constraints: Development is a result of experience filtered through initial biases, but those biases constrain the number of developmental pathways that are possible (e.g. limitations imposed by flight). Elizabeth Spelke (1991) claimed that babies are born with certain “pre-existing biases” or “constraints“ on their understanding of the behaviour of objects (e.g. unsupported objects will move downwards). ❑ Behaviour Genetics: This involves the study of genetic contributions to individual behaviour, implying that nature contributes to variations from one individual to another. Research focuses primarily on identical and fraternal twins, and adopted children. Hereditary affects a vast range of physical aspects, pathology, and temperamental issues. ❑ Gene-Environment Interaction: A child’s genetic heritage may affect his environment. Children inherit their genes from their parents, who also usually create the environment they live in. Secondly, each child’s unique pattern of behaviour affects the way adults and other children respond. Thirdly, children’s interpretations of their experiences are affected by inherited tendencies, such as intelligence, temperament, and pathology. ❑ Internal Models of Experience: Although often experiences are associated with external forces, the individual’s view of his/her own experience, that is the internal aspect of experience, is also significant. This internal model of experience is a set of core ideas about the self and relationships with others, through which all subsequent experience is filtered (e.g. I usually look good). This self-model is based on experience but it also shapes the future. ❑ Aslin’s Model of Environmental Influence: Richard Aslin’s model attempts to explain environmental influences on development: 1. The first model (maturation) represents a purely maturational pattern with no environmental effect (e.g. colour of eyes). 2. The second model (maintenance) describes a pattern in which some environmental input is necessary to sustain a skill that has already developed maturationally (e.g. swimming at birth). 3. The third model (facilitation) states that a skill or behaviour develops earlier than it normally would because of experience (e.g. language). The skill still develops eventually in other individuals and there are no permanent gains. 4. The fourth model (attunement) describes how a particular experience leads to a permanent gain or an enduringly high level of performance (e.g. exposure to reading). 5. The fifth model (induction) describes a pure environmental effect. In the absence of experience, a particular behaviour does not develop at all (e.g. playing the piano). 4. The Ecological Perspective ❑ This approach focuses on external forces which may impact on a child. A key proponent is Urie Bronfenbrenner, who proposed that a child grows up in a complex social environment (ecology), with a number of significant people. His model focuses on how the components of this complex system interact to affect the development of the individual child. Culture, whether individualistic or collectivist, is an integral part of this model. 5. Vulnerability and Resilience ❑ This approach considers the complexity of the interaction between individual characteristics and the environment. Children may be resilient to outside forces, and similar environments are linked to different outcomes. Children are born with certain protective factors and vulnerabilities, which then interact with the environment. Hence the same environment may produce different outcomes, depending on what the child brings into the interaction.  MAIN THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT  THREE PATHWAYS TO UNDERSTAND DEVELOPMENT ❑ The three main schools of thought are: 1. Psychoanalytic theories. 2. Cognitive developmental/Information-Processing theories. 3. Learning theories (classical conditioning; operant conditioning; Bandura’s social cognitive theory). RESEARCH METHODS IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT  THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD ❑ Developmental psychology uses research to achieve 4 goals: 1. To describe development (i.e. state what happens). 2. To explain development (i.e. why an event occurs). 3. To predict development (i.e. envisage an event). 4. To influence development (i.e. intervention).  STUDYING AGE RELATED CHANGES ❑ Three methods may be used to study age-related changes: 1. Cross-sectional designs (i.e. different age groups at the same time). 2. Longitudinal designs (i.e. same participants over a period of time). 3. Sequential designs (i.e. combining cross-sectional and longitudinal designs).  IDENTIFYING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN VARIABLES ❑ There are various ways to study variables (characteristics), which vary between individuals: 1. Case studies and naturalistic observation. 2. Correlations. 3. Experiments.  CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH ❑ Comparisons of different cultures allows for identification of universality and improvement of people’s lives. The main methods used are: 1. Ethnography (i.e. the systematic study of people and cultures). 2. Cross-cultural comparison studies. ❑ In all aspects of research, ethical guidelines, which protect humans and animals, are employed.