Developmental Psychology Notes PDF

UNIT I: BASIC METHODS AND DESIGN IN RESEARCH STRATEGIES THEORIES- are groups of ideas and propositions used to organize, describe, and explain an existing set of observations. HYPOTHESES- are estimates about imminent phenomena. Acceptable research methods possess: RELIABILITY (produce consis...

UNIT I: BASIC METHODS AND DESIGN IN RESEARCH STRATEGIES THEORIES- are groups of ideas and propositions used to organize, describe, and explain an existing set of observations. HYPOTHESES- are estimates about imminent phenomena. Acceptable research methods possess: RELIABILITY (produce consistent, replicable results) VALIDITY (accurately measure what they are intended to measure) Research Methods Two methodological traditions QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH- focuses on objectively measurable data. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH- examines nonnumerical data such as subjective experiences, feelings, or beliefs. SCIENTIFIC METHOD is a process that requires the use of objective data to determine the viability of theories. SAMPLE is a set of people selected to reflect the overall population being studied. RANDOM SELECTION is the process of selecting a sample so that each individual in a population has an equal and independent chance of being chosen. Major Methods of Data Collection (Papalia and Martorell, 2014) Basic Research Design (Papalia and Martorell, 2014) Groups and Variable (Papalia & Martorell, 2014) Experimental group in an experiment is the group that receives the treatment being studied. Control group in an experiment is a group of persons who are similar to the experimental group but do not receive the treatment being studied. Random assignment is the process of assigning participants in an experiment to groups so that each person has an equal probability of being placed in any group. Independent variable in an experiment is a condition over which the researcher has direct control. Dependent variable refers to the condition that may or may not change as the independent variable varies. In an experiment, a researcher manipulates the independent variable to determine how changes affect the dependent variable. A study hypothesis describes how the researcher believes the independent variable impacts the dependent variable. Research Designs for Studying Human Development (Papalia and Martorell, 2014; Shaffer and Kipp, 2012)  MOST IMPORTANT ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS (According to American Psychological Association, for children who participates in a research) 1. informed consent (consent freely given with full knowledge of what the research entails) 2. avoidance of deception 3. protection of participants from harm and loss of dignity 4. guarantees of privacy and confidentiality 5. the right to decline or withdraw from an experiment at any time 6. the responsibility of investigators to correct any undesirable effects, such as anxiety or shame. Three Principles to Guide researcher in resolving ethical dilemmas (Papalia & Martorell, 2014) BENEFICENCE s the commitment to maximize potential benefits for participants while minimizing potential harm. Respect participants' autonomy and protect those who are unable to exercise their own decision. JUSTICE means including diverse groups while remaining sensitive to any specific influence the research may have on them. DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY - covers the growth, change and consistency of an individual though the lifespan. GROWTH - covers the physical change or quantitative change. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT DEVELOPMENT refers to systematic continuity and changes that happen between conception and death. The approach is described as "systematic," as it implies the development in orderly, patterned, and relatively enduring, change (Shaffer and Kipp, 2012). Development is described as systematic changes and continuities in the individual that occur between conception and death, also known as "womb to tomb" (Sigelman & Rider, 2010). SOURCES OF DEVELOPMENT: MATURATION- developmental changes in the body or behavior that is a result of aging process LEARNING - a permanent change in behavior that is contributed from one's experiences or practice. LIFE SPAN DEVELOPMENT The Life-Span Perspective Life-span Perspective is a perception that development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual. Life-span Development is the scientific study of human development as a continuous process that occurs throughout one's life (Papalia & Martorell, 2021). Components of the Life-span Perspective (Paul Baltes) Development is Lifelong. Development occurs throughout an individual's entire life Development is Multidimensional. Development covers the dynamic interaction of factors like physical, emotional, and psychosocial development. Development is Multidirectional. During development some aspect in an individual like skills were developed while were underdeveloped. Development is Plastic. Characteristics of development can be changeable. Development is Multidisciplinary. Other discipline shares interest in the study of human development. Development is Contextual. Development is influenced by different factors (historical, economic, social and cultural factors). Goals of Human Development As the field of human development evolved, its goals expanded to include description, explanation, prediction, and intervention. DOMAINS OF DEVELOPMENT Biological/Physical processes are changes in an individual's physical nature. Cognitive processes are changes in an individual's thought, intelligence, and language. Psychosocial processes are changes in an individual's interpersonal relationships, emotions, and personality. Each domain impacts the others. They are separated but interrelated. Periods of the Life Span/Development The division of life into periods is a social construct: a belief or practice developed by a particular culture or civilization. Four ages (Baltes, 2006; Willis & Schaie, 2006): First age: Childhood and adolescence Second age: Prime adulthood, ages 20 through 59 Third age: Approximately 60 to 79 years of age Fourth age: Approximately 80 years and older Three distinct developmental patterns according to K. Warner Schaie (2016) that provide a depiction of how aging can contain individual variations: Most persons have normal aging, with psychological functioning peaking in early middle age, remaining relatively stable until the late fifties and early sixties, and then gradually dropping until the early 1980s. People who experience a greater-than-average drop in their adult years are considered to be pathologically aging. Individuals with successful aging experience extended periods of positive physical, cognitive, and socioemotional progress, with deterioration happening later in life than the general population. Significance of Age Age and Happiness According to some research, it is U-shaped, negatively correlated, and positively correlated. Conception of Age According to some life-span experts, chronological age is not very relevant to understanding a person's psychological development. Age does not matter There are other "Ages" other than chronological age Biological age is a person's age based on their biological health. It entails understanding the functional capabilities of a person's vital organs. Psychological age refers to an individual's adaptive capacity in comparison to others of the same chronological age. The term "social age" refers to the social roles and expectations that come with being a certain age. Consider the "mother" role and the associated actions. Developmental Issues The nature-nurture debate centers on the extent to which nature and nurture influence developmentaloutcomes. A social construction is an idea or practice that is unique to a specific culture or society (Santrock, 2019). The stability-change debate encompasses whether early traits and characteristics persist throughout life or change (Santrock, 2019). Continuity-discontinuity investigates the extent to which evolution involves either gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity) (Santrock, 2019). Influences on Development Heredity, Environment, and Maturation. Heredity refers to inborn characteristics inherited from biological parents. The environment encompasses non-hereditary or experiential impacts on development. Maturation is the normal course of physical and behavioral changes (Papalia & Martorell, 2021). Epigenetics is the study of how our genes "change" as we develop or as a result of environmental factors. Maturation Theory (by Arnold Gesell) He used the term "maturation" to refer to a genetically activated developmental process. According to the notion, the rate of development in children is primarily determined by the development of their nervous system. CONTEXT OF DEVELOPMENT FAMILY Nuclear Family. A two-generation household consists of one or two parents and their biological, adopted, or stepchildren (Papalia & Martorell, 2021). Extended Family. A multigenerational family network includes parents, siblings, and other relatives who occasionally share a house with an extended family (Papalia & Martorell, 2021). SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS AND NEIGHBORHOOD SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS (SES) A family's socioeconomic status (SES) is determined by its income and the educational and professional backgrounds of the adults who live there. SES indirectly influences these processes and results via related variables such as the sorts of homes and neighborhoods people reside in, as well as the quality of nutrition, healthcare, and education they have access to. RISK FACTORS. Conditions that increase the likelihood of a negative developmental outcome. RACE/ETHNICITY CULTURE A culture encompasses a society's or group's complete way of life, including conventions, traditions, beliefs, values, language, and tangible items. All of these are taught behaviors that parents pass down to their children. It is always changing (a cultural shift), often due to contact with other cultures (Papalia & Martorell, 2021). Ethnic groups. An ethic group is a collection of people who share genealogy, ethnicity, religion, language, or national origins and work together to promote a feeling of common identity. Ethnic gloss. Overgeneralization of an ethnic or cultural group that obscures internal differences (Papalia & Martorell, 2021). Race. Race influences "how individuals are treated, where they live, their employment opportunities, the quality of their health care, and whether they can fully participate" in their community GENDER Gender roles and expectations can influence an individual's development and lead to differences in experiences based on gender (Papalia & Martorell, 2021). THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT Previously, developmentalists gave little thought to the historical environment or the time period in which people lived. Then, as early longitudinal studies of childhood advanced into adulthood, researchers began to concentrate on how individual events associated with time and place influence the path of people's lives. Today, historical context is an important part of development study (Papalia & Martorell, 2021). TIMING OF INFLUENCES: CRITICAL OR SENSITIVE PERIODS Imprinting. Instinctive type of learning in which a young animal develops an attachment to the first moving object it sees-typically its mother-during a crucial stage of early development (Papalia & Martorell, 2021). Critical period. A specific point in time when the presence or absence of an event has a specific impact on development. Plasticity. Range of modifiability of performance Sensitive periods. Periods of development during which an individual is especially receptive to specific types of experiences. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT BASIC THEORETICAL ISSUES ISSUE 1: IS DEVELOPMENT ACTIVE OR REACTIVE? Psychologists who believe in reactive development see the developing child as a hungry sponge that absorbs events and is molded by them over time. Psychologists that believe in active development claim that people construct their own experiences and are eager to learn about the world around them. Things do not merely happen to them; they play an active role in shaping their reality. Mechanistic model. An approach that perceives human development as a series of predictable responses to stimulus. Organismic model. Human development is viewed as an internal process beginning by an active organism and occurring in a series of qualitatively distinct stages. ISSUE 2: IS DEVELOPMENT CONTINUOUS OR DISCONTINUOUS? Mechanist theorists view development as continuous, occurring in small, incremental phases. Development is always guided by the same processes, which include the incremental refinement and extension of early talents into later abilities, allowing one to forecast future traits based on past performance. This is referred to as quantitative change-a change in number or quantity, such as height, weight, or vocabulary size. Organismic theorists view development as discontinuous, with the appearance of new phenomena that are difficult to predict based on previous functioning. According to this viewpoint, development at all stages of life differs fundamentally. It is a change in type, structure, or organization, not just in quantity. This form of change is referred to as qualitative change. Organismic theorists support stage theories, which view development as occurring in a sequence of different stages, much like stair steps. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE 1: PSYCHOANALYTIC Sigmund Freud's Psychosexual Theory as the child matures biologically, their psychic energy of the sex instinct (libido) shifts from one part of the body to another, wherein there is a quest to please different biological needs. fixations, a persistent focus of the id's pleasure-seeking energies that influences the earlier stage of psychosexual development THE PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES PERSPECTIVE 2: LEARNING (PAPALIA & MARTORELL, 2021) A. BEHAVIORISM is a learning theory that stresses the predictable role of the environment in producing observable behavior. Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which a stimulus that does not typically elicit a response is associated with another stimulus that does. Burrhus Frederic Skinner's Operant Conditioning. Behavior occurrence results from the consequences of behavior made. A behavior followed by a reward will most likely to recur while a behavior followed by a punishment will recur less likely. Reinforcement is the process of strengthening a behavior so that it is more likely to be repeated. Punishment is the process of weakening a behavior such that it is less likely to be repeated. B. ALBERT BANDURA'S SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY (SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY) cognitive processes are linked to the environment and behavior. people cognitively represent the behavior of others and adopt the behavior themselves.. Three elements that operates interactively: behavior the person/cognition environment PERSPECTIVE 3: COGNITIVE JEAN PIAGET'S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY children undergo four stages of cognitive development while they actively construct their understanding of the world (Santrock, 2019). The sensorimotor stage (Birth to about 2 years of age) Infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating their sensory experiences and physical actions The preoperational stage (2 to 7 years of age) Children starts to characterize the world with words, images and drawings. The concrete operational (7 to 11 years of age) Children can reason logically when the it can be applied to specific or concrete examples. The formal operational stage (11 and 15 and continues through adulthood) Individuals begin to think in abstract, idealistic and more logical ways. LEV VYGOTSKY'S SOCIOCULTURAL COGNITIVE THEORY that children actively construct their knowledge and that their social interaction and culture plays important roles in their cognitive development (Cherry, 2020). The Zone of Proximal Development the term for the range of tasks that are too difficult for a child to master alone but can be learned with guidance and assistance from adults or more-skilled children. The lower limit is the level of skill reached by the child working independently. The upper limit is the level of additional responsibility the child can accept with the assistance of an able instructor (Clara, 2017; Holzman, 2017). Scaffolding altering the level of support to the child. THE INFORMATION-PROCESSING APPROACH It is a method of studying cognitive development that involves observing and examining the mental processes involved in perception and information processing. The information processing approach attempts to explain cognitive development by examining the processes involved in making sense of new information and effectively performing tasks, such as attention, memory, planning strategies, decision-making, and goal-setting. PERSPECTIVE 4: CONTEXTUAL URIE BRONFENBRENNER'S BIOECOLOGICAL MODEL OF DEVELOPMENT the developing individual with his/her genetic makeup and biological and psychological characteristics, is embedded in a series of environmental systems. The Four Environmental Systems 1. The microsystem is the situation in which the individual lives. The mesosystem contains the linkages between two or more microsystems. 2. The exosystem consists of linkage between a social setting in which the individual does not have an active role and the individual's immediate setting. 3. The macrosystem encompasses the culture in which individuals live. 4. The chronosystem covers the patterns of environmental events, transitions of life course, and sociohistorical circumstances. PERSPECTIVE 5: EVOLUTIONARY/SOCIOBIOLOGICAL Wilson (1975) proposed the evolutionary/sociobiological approach, which focuses on the evolutionary and biological underpinnings of behavior. It is influenced by Darwin's theory of evolution. According to Darwin, species evolved through the processes of survival of the fittest and natural selection. Individuals with heritable qualities that are better adapted to their settings survive and reproduce more than those who are not as well adapted. Ethology is the study of the various adaptive behaviors of animal species that have developed to better their chances of survival. Evolutionary psychology is the application of Darwin's principles of natural selection and survival of the fittest to individual behavior.