PSY210 Final Notes PDF

First Third of the Semester Lec 1: Introduction to Child Development 1. Why study child development? a. To support healthy care for children b. To inform social policies c. To better understand human nature i. Nativists 1. These capacities are all hardwired into our body ii. Empiricists 1. Human nature is shaped by experience and learning 2. John Lock, the child is born as a blank slate, and all behaviours and traits are from their interactions with the environment. iii. Infants demonstrate a sense of ‘fairness’ and prefer helpful characters over harmful characters. iv. Moral values can vary across cultures and impact understanding v. Human nature includes both inherent tendencies and environmental characteristics 2. Syllabus a. Important dates i. Term Test 1 30% September 24 ii. Term Test 2 30% October 22 iii. Final Exam 40% (TBD) iv. Participation 1. Need to participate in 7/10 classes for the participation credits b. About this course c. Teaching team d. TopHat (Participation credit) 3. Historical Foundations a. Early philosopher’s views i. Methods were unscientific to today’s standards. ii. Ancient Greece -> present day 1. Studied children and similar goals to what we have today. 2. A better understanding of human nature iii. Plato 1. Greek 2. Self-control and discipline for the children 3. Believed children are born with innate knowledge iv. Aristotle (Plato’s student) 1. Greek 2. Fitting child rearing to an individual child’s needs 3. Believed knowledge comes from experience v. Similarities 1. How children were influenced by nature vs nurture 2. Believes that the long-term welfare of society depends on properly raising children. 3. Without structure, children’s basic nature would be rebellious and unruly vi. John Locke 1. “Tabula rasa”: Children are a blank slate 2. Grow children’s character. 3. Parents must set a good example of honesty and stability to grow a positive character. 4. The early years are important because they instill discipline. Parents can gradually increase their children’s freedom as children develop and grow more independent. vii. Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1. Nativist adjacent 2. Children learn from their interactions with objects and people rather than from their socialization, and parents instill that in them. 3. Parents should give children the maximum amount of freedom from the beginning. 4. Children should not proceed with formal education until they reach the ‘age of reason’ and can adequately form a connection with and understanding of what they are learning. 4. Enduring themes a. How do nature and nurture together shape development? (Nature and Nurture) i. Biology/genes that we receive from our parents, a complete set of hereditary information ii. Physical appearance, maturity, mental health iii. Physical and social environments impact development from prenatal to the home, school, broader communities, people we meet/interact with, etc. iv. Either or positioning is no longer the working schema; now, it’s an interaction between our biology and environment that shapes our development. v. Schizophrenia 1. A genetic component of this mental illness 2. Identical twins of a schizophrenic individual are very likely to have schizophrenia, whereas the general population’s likelihood is 1% 3. Adopted children who are adopted into a troubled family have a higher likelihood of developing schizophrenia (Nurture component) b. How do children shape their development (The active child) i. Attention 1. Fear or danger 2. Faces (mother or caregiver’s face) 3. In the first month, the baby can identify the mother’s face 4. The second month can coo and smile with mother’s face 5. Mother/Child bond is strong ii. Language 1. Two years old? Or two months old, create crib speech, talking to oneself 2. As children talk about experiences over, it can help them create meaning in events as they unfold iii. Play 1. Internally motivated play, fantasy play, etc. 2. It is fun, but it functions to teach children valuable lessons about how objects work, the cause and effect of their actions, 3. learning how to identify emotions and strategies for coping with emotions/resolving conflicts/disputes 4. As they get older, they start playing by rule-bound play, social development 5. Contributions to their development are strengthened and broadened; children are increasingly able to choose their environments c. In what way is development continuous and discontinuous? (Continuous and Discontinuous Development) i. A tree has development continuity (It just grows taller steadily) ii. A butterfly has development discontinuity (Caterpillar makes chrysalis, then comes out a butterfly after time) iii. Students of different ages are very different from one another iv. Large and discontinuous age-related phases v. Different intellectual abilities of how they understand the world vi. PIaget’s conservation tests (4 yo fixates, 7yo considers dimensions) vii. The soccer video (Continuous) viii. Jack-Jack (Discontinuous) ix. Continuous Development 1. Changes with age occur gradually, in small increments 2. Development occurs concept by concept and skill by skill x. Discontinuous Development 1. Changes occur in stages xi. Height 1. Perspective: The same facts can look different compared to how we look at phenomena 2. d. How does change occur? (Mechanisms of change) i. Genetic 1. Genes that influence the production of neurotransmitters 2. Differences in children’s effortful control ii. Neural 1. Development of connections in emotional reactions 2. Prefrontal cortex 3. Amygdala 4. Mechanisms that underlie effortful control during childhood iii. Behavioural 1. Provide children with behavioural strategies to control their emotions iv. Effortful control 1. Many factors acting in conjunction with one another e. How does the sociocultural context influence development? (Sociocultural context) i. Bronfenbrenner: Bioecological model ii. The child does not grow in isolation but instead is surrounded by webs of sociocultural context. iii. Mesosystem: What the child interacts most with 1. Family 2. Teachers 3. Home 4. School 5. Hospital iv. Exosystem: What influences children’s lives 1. Friends 2. Sports v. Macrosystem: Time itself, the period when the child is growing up 1. Generational components vi. How factors of the environment in direct and indirect ways to children’s development f. How do children become so different from one another? (Individual Differences) i. Genetic Differences ii. Differences in treatment by parents and others 1. Provide more sensitive care towards easy children 2. Teachers care more about individuals who demonstrate success but are cruel to those who do not. iii. Differences in reactions to similar experiences iv. Different choices of environments 1. As children start to get older, they may accept specific niches for themselves in the family or begin to choose the activities that they’re interested in or the people that they’re interested in g. How can research promote children’s well-being? i. Research often improves development and how we diagnose children’s problems and issues. ii. Preventions or programs that help children develop fully iii. Research suggests that as children develop language, terrible two decline because they're able to convey what they want 5. Methods a. Basic Assumption i. All beliefs, no matter how probably they seem, may be wrong b. The scientific method i. Ask a question ii. Form a hypothesis iii. Develop a method to test the hypothesis iv. Draw a conclusion c. Importance of appropriate measurement i. Reliability 1. Amount of agreement between witnesses of the same behaviour 2. Interrater reliability 3. Test-retest reliability (Working memory) ii. Validity 1. Internal validity 2. External validity a. How you can generalize the results to different children d. 3 Contexts for Gathering Data i. Interviews/questionnaires ii. Natural observations iii. Structured observation iv. (See chart for advantages and disadvantages) e. Correlational vs Causational i. Determine how variables are related to one another ii. Associations iii. Cause-effect relations f. Correlational Designs i. Goal: To determine whether children who differ in one variable also differ in predictable ways in other variables ii. Correlation: Association between 2 variables (range from -1; +1) iii. The cause-effect inference is not justified 1. Direction-of-causation problem a. It does not say which, if either, is the cause 2. Third variable problems a. When the effect of two variables could be the cause of a third g. Experimental Designs i. Goal: To make inferences about cause-effect relations ii. Two essential components 1. Random assignment a. When the sample has an equal chance to be assigned to either the control or treatment group iii. Experimental Control: the ability of the researcher to determine the specific experiences that children have during an experiment iv. Independent Variable: What the researcher changes v. Dependent Variable: What changes as a result of an IV change See the advantages and disadvantages of correlational and experimental designs chart h. Research designs i. Cross-Sectional 1. Different ages study ii. Longitudinal 1. When you look at a bunch of the same sample of children over a long time iii. Microgenetic 1. Mini longitudinal studies 2. When you follow the same children intensively over a short period See advantages and disadvantages of designs for studying development chart i. Ethical issues in child development research i. Anticipate potential risks ii. Minimize such risks iii. Ensure benefits outweigh any potential harm. 6. Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct For Research Involving Humans a. Ensuring the research does not harm children physically or psychologically b. Obtaining informed consent c. Preserving individual participants’ anonymity d. Discussing relevant information with parents/guardians that is relevant to child welfare e. Working to counteract negative consequences that might arise during the research f. Correcting inaccurate child impressions g. Explaining the main findings to participants at the developmentally appropriate level Lec 2: Attachment and Development of Self 1. Lecture 1 Review a. Nativists i. Certain skills/abilities are hardwired into the brain at birth b. Empiricists i. General learning capacity and play allow them to learn quickly, but development comes from learning and observations, not necessarily hardwired. c. Research Designs i. Cross-Sectional 1. ii. Longitudinal 1. Study that is longer than 1 year, looking at growth over time 2. Cons: a. It is a very long study and expensive the more you drag it out iii. Microgenetic 1. Intense mini longitudinal study 2. The period where you are following subjects 3. The construct of interest is going through a period of change 4. Cons: a. Intensive short-span study b. Unable to answer the long-term effects questions or development gives you an answer for the now d. Importance of appropriate measurement i. Reliability 1. Interrater Reliability 2. Test-Retest Reliability ii. Validity 1. Internal Validity (truth in the study) 2. External Validity (truth in real life) e. 7 Fundamental questions/themes of child development i. Nature & Nurture ii. The active child iii. Continuity and discontinuity iv. Mechanisms of change v. Sociocultural context vi. Individual differences vii. Research and children’s welfare f. Tophat i. Do you think development is continuous or discontinuous 1. Continuous 2. Discontinuous 3. It depends 2. Attachment a. Attachment: A close, emotional bond with a specific person that endures across space and time b. The quality of early relationships lays the foundations for how children feel about other environments, people, etc. c. Attachment by classical conditioning i. Why do children and their parents share a special bond? 1. Behaviourist perspectives 2. Before conditioning a. Milk -> Happy Baby 3. During conditioning a. Mommy -> Milk -> Happy Baby 4. After conditioning a. Mother -> Happy Baby 5. This classical conditioning example best describes the infant-mother bond because the mother provides for the baby and is relatively more attentive than the two parents during infancy. ii. Harry Harlow’s Primate Laboratory 1. The process may be a bit more complicated 2. Emphasis on the “sense of security” provided by the caregiver 3. Extremely unethical and cruel experiments by today’s standards, but they identified the mother/infant bond 4. Monkeys that were raised without their mothers were physically healthy but more likely to develop emotional and behavioural issues than those who were given something soft to hold onto 5. Monkeys would go toward the wire milk mother but would immediately return to the cloth mother once done 6. Comfort of the cloth mother 7. Cower/engage in self-soothing behaviour without the cloth mother, but when the cloth mother was introduced, they would gradually become more confident and explore the room, occasionally returning to the cloth mother (base of operations) iii. John Bowlby’s theory of attachment 1. He theorized that children are biologically predisposed to develop attachments to caregivers to increase the chances of their survival. 2. Secure base = The presence of a trusted caregiver provides a sense of safety that enables the child to explore their environment 3. Securely attached cycle d. Inspirations for attachment theory i. Harry Harlow’s work ii. Ethological theories (Konrad Lorenz) 1. Imprinting = a form of learning in which newborns in some specifies become attached to and follow adult members of the species 2. Attachment is an ‘emotional version’ of imprinting. e. Why is attachment important? i. Increased chances for survival ii. Supports exploration without fear iii. Serves as a form of co-regulation iv. Informs internal working models of attachment f. Internal working model of attachment i. A mental representation of: 1. Self 2. Attachment figures 3. Relationships in general g. Bowlby’s 4 phases of attachment i. Preattachent phase (birth - 6 weeks) ii. Attachment-in-the-making (6 weeks to 6-8 months) iii. Clear-cut attachment (Between 6-8 months and 1½ -2 years) iv. Formation of reciprocal relationships (2 years on) h. How do we measure attachment? i. Observe children’s behaviour with their caregivers. ii. Interview parents and children about each other’s behaviours and the quality of their relationships iii. 2 Key factors provide insight into the quality of mother-infant attachment 1. The extent of an infant’s use of a primary caregiver as a secure base 2. Infant’s reaction to brief separations and reunions with caregiver iv. The strange situation 1. The experimenter introduces the caregiver and infant to the unfamiliar room, shows toys to the baby, and then leaves. 2. The caregiver and child are alone; the caregiver is told not to initiate interaction but to respond appropriately to the infant. 3. A stranger enters and is seated quietly for 1 minute, talks to the caregiver for 1 minute, then tries to interact with the infant for 1 minute. 4. The caregiver leaves the child alone with the stranger, who lets the infant play but offers comfort if needed.d 5. The caregiver calls the infant from outside, enters the room, and the stranger leaves. The caregiver lets the infant play and comforts them if needed. 6. The caregiver leaves the infant alone in the room.m 7. Strangers enter the room, greet the infant and pause. Comforts if necessary 8. The caregiver returns to the room and interacts if appropriate 9. Resulting in the following types of caregiver-infant relationships a. Secure attachment (50% of infants) b. Insecure attachment (10% of infants) c. Insecure-avoidant (15% of infants) d. Disorganized-disorientated (23% of infants) 10. Evaluating the strange situation a. Pros: i. Similarity in infant behaviour in lab setting and home ii. It continues to be the gold standard measurement of attachment b. Cons: i. Requires substantial resources ii. Multiple continuous dimensions might be more appropriate iii. The strange situation may no longer be ‘strange.’ i. Childcare i. 15 mo. olds in childcare are just as likely to be securely attached as those not in childcare ii. 36 mo. olds in childcare are just as likely to be securely attached as those not in childcareHigh-quality childcare can serve as a compensatory function iii. The only time that childcare appears to interfere with attachment is when: 1. Childcare is low-quality 2. Children experience insensitive parenting iv. In addition to not undermining parent-child attachment security, childcare can promote attachment security in the parent-child relationship under certain circumstances. p j. Parental sensitivity i. Caregiving behaviour that involves the expression of warmth and contingent responsiveness ii. Mothers of securely attached infants respond warmly and are sensitive to their children’s needs.s iii. Consistency across cultures: Responding in a soothing and encouraging manner to the child when the child seeks attention k. Circle of security intervention i. Parents are encouraged to reflect on their mental representations of how parents and children should interact. ii. Emphasis on changing parents’ maladaptive representations l. Genetic factors involved in attachment i. Genetic makeup may affect the way that environmental factors influence attachment security ii. Differential susceptibility (Gene DRD4) 1. Gene DRD4 + stressful environment = disorganized/disorientated attachment 2. Gene DRD4 + unstressful environment = secure attachment m. Attachment and social-emotional development i. Secure attachment outcomes: 1. Higher self-regulation 2. Higher sociability 3. Higher social competence 4. Less anxious 5. Less depressed 6. More positive peer and romantic relationships 7. Better academic performance ii. Children’s internal working models shape: iii. Adjustment and social behaviour iv. Expectations of other people v. Self-perceptions and sense of self 3. The Self a. Three Main Aspects of Self i. Self-Concept 1. System of one’s thoughts and attitudes about oneself 2. Physical Being 3. Social Characteristics 4. Internal Characteristics 5. Self Concept Evolves over Time a. 2~4mo: Infants recognize their ability to control objects b. 8mo: Separation anxiety is linked to attachment c. 12mo: Joint attention d. 18~20mo: Self-recognition e. 2yrs: Verbal self-descriptions that mostly focus on physical appearance f. 3-5yrs: More internal self-descriptions, self-conscious emotions g. 6~13yrs: Social comparisons h. Early Adolescence: Abstract characteristics emerge, sense of multiple selves i. Late Adolescence: Self-concept becomes more integrated, less determined by what others think ii. Self-Esteem 1. One’s overall evaluation of the worth of and the feelings that one has about that evaluation iii. Identity 1. A definition of the self 2. We have multiple identities (i.e., student, sibling, friend, coworker, teammate, etc.) 3. Erik Erikson’s underlying theory of identity a. Believed that all adolescents experience an identity crisis, in part as a means of separating from their parents b. Identity achievement = successful resolution of this crisis 4. 4 Groups of Identity (James Marcia) a. Dimensions of identity exploration and commitment b. Child temperament and attachment i. “Difficult” Temperament 1. ii. “Easy” Temperament 1. iii. “Slow-to-warm” temperament 1. Once given time to adjust, they generally become comfortable with the environment. 2. Secure attachment with caregivers that are present and gradual exposure to new situations c. Stability of attachment i. Attachment styles are generally stable but not fixed ii. Can change (for better or for worse) 1. Changes are often tied to significant changes in caregiving or the child’s environment. Lec 3: Development of Self and Cognitive Development 1. Lecture Overview a. The self b. Piaget’s Theory c. Information processing theories d. Core-knowledge theories e. Sociocultural theories f. Dynamic-system theories 1. The Self g. Three main aspects of self i. Self-Concept 1. How we view ourselves 2. Our system of thoughts and attitudes that we hold about ourselves ii. Self-Esteem 1. How we evaluate and feel about ourselves 2. How we think about our self-concept iii. Identity h. System of one’s thoughts and attitudes about oneself i. Physical being ii. Social characteristics iii. Internal characteristics i. Self-concept over time j. Erik Erikson: Earliest theory of identity i. Believed that all adolescents experience an identity crisis, in part as a means of separating from their parents ii. Identity achievement = successful resolution of this crisis 2. Theories of cognitive development a. What is cognitive development? i. How children think, explore, and figure things out ii. Perception & Learning iii. Language development iv. Intelligence b. 5 Theories of cognitive development i. Piaget’s theory ii. Information-processing theories iii. Core-knowledge theories iv. Sociocultural theories v. Dynamic-systems theories c. Piaget i. Piaget’s view of children’s nature 1. Children are scientists 2. Children construct knowledge for themselves in response to their experiences. 3. Generating hypotheses 4. Performing experiments 5. Drawing conclusions from observations ii. Child development includes continuous and discontinuities in learning iii. Continuous 1. Three processes that work together to propel development 2. Assimilation a. A child incorporates incoming information into concepts they already know 3. Accommodation a. Child improves their current understanding based on new experiences 4. Equilibration a. The child is satisfied with their understanding b. New information is introduced c. The child develops a more sophisticated understanding that eliminates at least 1 of the shortcomings of the old one, creating a more advanced equilibrium. iv. Discontinuous 1. Cognitive development unfolds in distinct stages where children make an intellectual leap from one coherent way of understanding the world to the next higher one. 2. Sources of discontinuity a. Qualitative change b. Invariant sequence c. Broad applicability d. Brief transitions v. Stages of child growth 1. Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2yo) a. Children understand the world through their sensory and motor abilities b. Object permanence starts around eight months old c. “Little scientist” or active exploring 2. Preoperational stage (2yo - 7yo) a. Children understand the world through language and mental images b. Centration: The tendency to focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event c. Egocentrism: Perceiving the world solely from one’s own point of view 3. Concrete operational stage (7yo - 12yo) a. Children understand the world through logical thinking about concrete events. b. Limited to concrete situations, abstract and hypothetical thinking is difficult. 4. Formal operational stage (12yo+) a. Children understand the world through hypothetical thinking and scientific reasoning. b. Piaget believed this stage was not universal vi. Weaknesses of Piaget’s Theory 1. It is vague about the mechanisms that give rise to children’s thinking and produce cognitive growth (Information Processing Theories) 2. Infants and young children are more cognitively competent than Piaget thought (Core-Knowledge Theories) 3. It understates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development (Sociocultural theories) 4. It depicts children’s thinking as more consistent than it is (Dynamic-systems theories) 3. Information Processing Theories a. Approaches that compare the human mind to an information processor or computer, with an emphasis on mental processes involved in acquiring, storing, and using knowledge b. View of children’s nature i. Children are a limited-capacity processing system and problem solver ii. Cognitive development occurs continuously as children overcome processing limitations by: 1. Expanding the amount of information that can be processed at a time 2. Increasing their processing speeds 3. Acquiring new strategies and knowledge c. Sensory Memory -> Short-Term Memory -> Long-Term Memory d. Development of memory i. Executive functioning: Cognitive processes involved in the control of behaviour and thought processes 1. Inhibition 2. Working memory 3. Cognitive flexibility ii. Content knowledge 1. Increasing knowledge of a topic improves recall of new material by making it easier to integrate new material with existing understanding. e. Development of Problem Solving i. Strategies allow children to overcome limitations in their knowledge and processing capacity. ii. Overlapping waves theory: An information-processing approach to the development of problem-solving that emphasizes the variability of children’s thinking 4. Core-Knowledge Theories a. Approaches that emphasize that children are born without basic knowledge, or ‘core knowledge systems’ that support their learning about the world b. View of Children’s Nature i. The child is a well-adapted product of evolution ii. Believe that children enter the world equipped with the following: 1. General learning abilities 2. Specialized learning mechanisms c. Central Developmental Issue i. Nativism: Infants have a substantial innate knowledge of important evolutionary domains ii. Constructivism: Blends nativism, Piagetian theory, and information processing theory 1. The infant’s initial knowledge is rudimentary. 2. Advanced understanding is built by combining rudimentary innate knowledge with subsequent experience and exploration. 5. Sociocultural Theories a. Approaches that emphasize that other people and the surrounding culture contribute largely to children’s development b. View of Children’s Nature i. Children are social learners ii. Vygotsky: Relation between language and thought through 3 phases leading to the development of thought 1. Children’s behaviour is controlled by other people’s statements 2. Children’s behaviour is controlled by their own private speech 3. Childrne’s behaviour is controlled by internalized private speech (thought) c. Zone of Proximal Development i. Central Developmental Issues 1. How change occurs through social interaction a. Intersubjectivity: Mutual understanding that individuals share during communication i. This is considered the foundation of human cognitive development in sociocultural approaches. b. Guided Participation: Process in which more knowledgeable individuals organize activities in ways that allow less knowledgeable people to learn (social scaffolding) 6. Dynamic Systems Theories a. Approaches that emphasize the development of actions over time in complex systems; development is a process of constant change. b. View of children’s nature i. The child is motivated to learn, and its actions shape the development 1. Emphasis on children’s motivation and action ii. The centrality of action: Children’s actions shape their development through life c. Central Developmental Issues i. Cognitive development is a process of self-organization that involves continually integrating attention, memory, emotions, and actions to adapt to constantly changing environments. ii. “Soft assembly”: Components are ever changing from moment to moment and situation to situation Second Third of the Semester Lec 4: Perception, Motor Development, and Learning 1. Perception a. Sensation & Perception i. Sensation: Processing of basic information from the external world via receptors in the sense organs (i.e. eyes, ears, skin) and brain ii. Perception: Process of organizing and interpreting sensory information about the objects, events, and spatial layout of the world around us b. How do Researchers Study Infant Perception i. Preferential Looking Technique: Showing the infant two visual stimuli simultaneously to see if the infant prefers (looks longer at) one over the other ii. Habituation: Repeatedly presenting the infant with a stimulus until the infant habituates (response to the stimulus declines), then presenting a new stimulus c. Visual Acuity i. Visual Acuity: How sharply or clearly we can see ii. Infants have poor contrast sensitivity (ability to detect differences in light cs dark areas in a visual pattern iii. Cone cells: Light-sensitive neurons in the eye involved in seeing fine detail and colour iv. Infants’ cones are spaced 4x farther apart than adults v. Infants catch 2% of the light striking the fovea, compared with 65% for adults vi. At 1 month: Infants have low visual acuity (20/120 birth vision) vii. By 8 months: Infants’ visual acuity approaches that of adults d. Colour Perception i. 0-1 month: Infants do not perceive differences between white/black/grey, and colour ii. By 2 months, Colour perception is similar to adults 1. Infants prefer unique hues like blue over colours that combine hues, like blue/green e. Visual Scanning i. Visual scanning: One of the few ways infants have active control over what they observe and learn ii. Newborns’ eye movements are jerky, so they have trouble tracking moving objects iii. 4 months in, infants are able to track slow-moving objects (smooth pursuit eye movements) f. Infants’ face perception i. Process of perceptual narrowing ii. Newborh: General bias for face-like stimuli iii. 6-month-olds: Can differentiate different human faces and different monkey faces (generalist) iv. 9-month-olds: can only differentiate human faces (specialist) v. Infants’ attention to talking faces 1. Talking faces are a particularly important source of information for babies 2. 4 months; Primary fixation on eyes of talking faces before productive speech 3. After infants begin babbling: primary fixation on speaker’s mouth (occurs earlier for bilingual infants) g. Object Perception i. Perceptual constancy: The perception of objects remaining constant in size, shape, and colour despite changes in the retinal image 1. Perceptual constancy is evident early, suggesting that experience is not necessary ii. Object segregation: The perception of boundaries between objects (relies more on experience) iii. 4 months: Use common movement to perceive object segregation iv. Older infants: Use additional sources of information for object segregation, including general knowledge about the world v. Experience with specific objects helps infants understand physical properties h. Object knowledge i. Younger infants continue to represent objects that have vanished from sigh ii. Object knowledge of of infants is explored using a procedure called violation of expectancy 1. Infants are shown an event that should evoke surprise or interest if the event violates something the infants know or assume to be true iii. In experimental situations, infants as young as 3.5 months looked longer at impossible events than at possible events i. Depth perception i. Optical expansion: When the visual image of an object increases in size as the object comes toward us, occluding more and more in the background ii. Binocular disparity: The difference between the retinal image of an object in each eye that results in two slightly different signals being sent to the brain iii. Monocular depth (pictorial cues): Perceptual cues of depth (such as relative size and interposition) that can be perceived by one eye alone j. Auditory perception i. Hearing is the most advanced of the newborn senses ii. There are vast improvements in sound conduction from the outer and middle ear to the inner ear over the course of infancy iii. Auditory pathways in the brain mature significantly over the first year iv. Auditory localization: Perception of the location in space of a sound source k. Music Perception i. In Canada, 72% of mothers and 26% of fathers sing to their infants frequently ii. Infant Directed Singing: Slower + higher pitch + higher positive affect iii. Infant preferences for: 1. Infant-directed singing over adult-directed singing 2. Consonant music, as opposed to dissonant music iv. Infant music perception is adultlike in some ways and different in others v. Perceptual Narrowing: Developmental changes in which experience fine-tunes the perceptual system l. Taste and Smell i. Sensitivity to taste develops before birth ii. Young children’s negative reaction to novel foods may be more strongly influenced by smell than by taste iii. Preferences for smells are present early in life 1. Newborns prefer sweet flavours and smells of breast milk 2. Infants can recognize the scent of their mothers from the scent of other women m. Touch i. Infants learn about their environments through touch 1. First few months: Oral exploration is dominant; infants suck and mouth on their own fingers and toes and objects 2. 4mo: Manual exploration grows as infants gain greater control over their hand and arm movements; infants rub, prod, and bang objects 3. 7mo: Infants process the locations at which other people are touched (hands versus feet) using the corresponding areas of their own somatosensory cortex n. Intermodal Perceptionn i. From early on, infants integrate information from different senses ii. Intermodal perception involves combining information from two or more sensory systems 2. Motor Development a. Human movement starts before birth b. After birth, newborn movements are jerky and uncoordinated due to: i. Physical and neurological immaturity ii. Experiencing the full effects of gravity for the first time c. Infant motor development has cascading effects on other aspects of development d. Reflexes i. Tightly organized patterns of action that occur in response to particular stimulation ii. Most neonatal reflexes disappear over time, although some (coughing, sneezing, blinking, and withdrawing from pain) remain. 1. Rooting 2. Sucking/swallowing 3. Tonic neck 4. Moro (Startle) 5. Grasping 6. Stepping e. Major Milestones in Infancy i. Motor Milestones 1. There are tremendous individual and cultural differences in the ages at which motor milestones are achieved. 2. Most developmental research focuses on participants from WEIRD cultures ii. Modern Views of Motor Development 1. Early thinking: Infants’ motor development is governed by brain maturation 2. Current theorists: Early motor development results from a confluence of many factors a. Developing neural mechanisms b. Increases in infants’ strength c. Gains in postural control d. Improvements in balance e. Improvements in perceptual skills f. Changes in body proportions and motivation f. Disappearing Stepping Reflex i. Thought to disappear around two months of age because of cortical maturation ii. Esther Thelen: Increases in infants’ weight may make it impossible for them to execute the stepping motions 1. Study 1: Weights attached to the ankles of infants with the stepping reflex 2. Study 2: Infants who no longer show the stepping reflex were suspended waist-deep in water that supported their weight g. Affordances i. Possibilities for actions offered or afforded by objects and situations ii. Small objects but not large ones afford the possibility of being picked up iii. Solid, flat surfaces afford stable walking, whereas squishy, slick, or steeply sloping ones do not iv. Chairs of a certain size afford the possibility of being sat on h. The Expanding World of the Infant i. Reaching: Involves complex interplay of muscle development, postural control, and various perceptual and motor skills 1. Before 3mo: Infants are limited to pre-reaching movements (clumsy swiping movements towards the general vicinity of objects they see) 2. 3-4mo: Successful reaching, but movements jerky and poorly controlled; grabs often fail 3. 7mo: leaning and sitting independently facilitates reaching; self-directed visual experiences aid motor development ii. Self-Locomotion: the ability to move around the environment on one’s own 1. 8mo: Infants become capable of self-locomotion as they begin to crawl 2. 11~12mo: Infants begin walking independently i. Scale Errors i. Attempts by young children to perform an action on a miniature object that is impossible due to the large discrepancy in the relative sizes of the child and the object 3. Learning & Memory a. Habituation i. A decrease in response after repeated stimulation ii. The simplest form of learning iii. Babies tend to respond relatively less to stimuli they have previously experienced and relatively more to novel stimuli. Diminished attention to what is familiar enables infants to pay attention to and learn about what is new. b. Statistical Learning i. Forming associations among stimuli that occur in a statistically predictable pattern ii. Statistical learning abilities have been measured across numerous domains: music, action, and language. iii. When regularity and predictability of objects, events, and other stimuli are violated, infants take notice. iv. Goldilocks effects: Avoiding patterns that are either too easy or too hard c. Classical Conditioning i. Associating initially neutral stimulus with a stimulus that always evokes a reflexive response ii. Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) iii. Unconditional Response (UCR) iv. Conditioned Stimulus (CS) v. Conditioned Response (CR) d. Instrumental Learning i. Learning the relation between one’s own behaviour and the consequences that result from it ii. Positive reinforcement iii. Negative reinforcement iv. Positive punishment v. Negative punishment e. Observational Learning/Imitation i. Learning through observation or other people’s behaviour f. Rational Learning i. Using prior experiences to predict what will occur in the future ii. Violation-of-expectation paradigms g. Active Learning i. Learning by acting on the world rather than passively observing objects and events ii. Surprise can drive active learning. h. Forms of learning work together i. Infants kicking to operate a mobile is an instrumental conditioning procedure that is engaged in active learning. ii. Rational learning depends on infants’ ability to track environmental statistics, such as the distribution of colours in a box of ping pongs. Lec 5: Language 1. Background a. Symbols in Language i. Language involves the creative and flexible use of symbols ii. Words iii. Alphabet/scripts iv. Grammar and syntax v. Metaphors/figurative language vi. Nonverbal symbols b. Generativity i. A finite set of grammatical rules and vocabulary can be combined to generate an infinite number of new and meaningful sentences and expressions. c. Comprehension & Production i. Comprehension: Understanding what others say (or sign or write) ii. Production: Speaking (or signing or writing) iii. Comprehension → Production d. Do animals have language? i. Instinctual signals and behaviours ii. Limited Complexity iii. Focus on the immediate environment and needs iv. Lack of generativity v. What is required for language? 1. Human brain a. Language is species-specific and species-universal b. Broca’s Area and Wrnicke’s Area c. Brain-language lateralization d. Sensitive Period 2. Human environment a. To learn language, children must be exposed to other people using language b. Infant-directed Speech: Greater pitch variability, slower speed, more word repetition, more questions, enhanced clarity of vowels 2. Main Components (Sorted inside out, onion-like) a. Phonology i. Speech is composed of units of sound called phonemes ii. Different languages have different sets of phonemes b. Morphology i. Smallest units of meaning in a language ii. Morphemes alone or in combination constitute words iii. E.g. Dog (1 morpheme), Dog+s= Dogs (2 morphemes) iv. Types of Morphemes 1. Prefixes 2. Roots/bases 3. Suffixes 4. Free Morpheme a. Base words b. Compound Words c. Function words 5. Bound morpheme a. Prefixes b. Suffixes c. Roots c. Syntax i. Rules specifying how words from different categories can be combined d. Semantics i. Study of meaning in language ii. How words, phrases, and sentences convey meaning e. Pragmatics i. Rules of conventions that govern how language is typically used in a social context f. Core Elements of Speech Perception i. Speech perception begins in the womb (Fetuses prefer their mother’s voice and the languages that they hear her speak) ii. Key elements of speech perception that develop early: 1. Prosody a. The rhythm, intonation, and stress patterns in speech b. Adds nuance and emotional content to language 2. Word Segmentation a. Discovering where words begin and end in fluent speech i. This process begins during the second half of the 1st year ii. Stress pattern as a cue: in English, the first syllable in 2-syllable words is more likely to be stressed than the second syllable iii. 8 months: Infants from English-speaking homes expect stressed syllables to begin words 3. Distributional Properties a. In any language, certain sounds are more likely to appear together than others. b. 4.5 months: Attention to infants’ own name c. Statistical learning: Infants identify patterns in speech i. Sensitivity to patterns ii. Implicit learning iii. Grammar and syntax 3. Acquisition Process a. Prelinguistic (0-12 mo) i. Newborns: cry, sneeze, sigh, burp, smack their lips ii. 6-8 weeks; infants begin to coo iii. 6-8 months: Babies begin babbling (deaf infants exposed to signed language babble with their hands) iv. Preparation for production 1. Sound production and feedback a. Infants become increasingly aware that their vocalizations elicit responses from others. 2. Turn-taking a. Simple games like peekaboo and ‘give-and-take’ switch between active and passive roles. 3. Mapping sounds into meanings a. Infants begin by understanding highly frequent words b. ~6 months: Look towards an image of the appropriate person 4. Scaffolding a. Intersubjectivity and joint attention b. ~12 months: infants understand the communicative nature of pointing b. One-word or Holophrastic (12-18 mo) i. Children start using single words to convey meaning ii. ~10-15 months: Infants produce their first meaningful words (often mispronounced; banana = nana) c. Two-word (18-24 mo) i. ~18 months: Productive vocabulary is around 50 words ii. Children begin to combine two words to form simple phrases or sentences iii. Short 2-word utterances that leave out non-essential words (“read me,” “hurt knee”) iv. Sources of support for children's word learning: 1. Infant-directed speech 2. Adults stress or repeat new words 3. Naming games (“Where’s your nose?”) 4. Optimal naming moments v. Overextension: Using a word in a broader context than is appropriate (If a child called every single farm animal a sheep) vi. Underextension: Using a word in a more limited context than appropriate d. Telegraphic Speech (24-36 mo) i. Children string together 3+ words into simple sentences (“I want cookie”) ii. Around 24 months, the First sentences are produced iii. Grammar: A tool for building new words and sentences 1. Each language has a set of rules and expectations that govern how linguistic elements can be contributed iv. Conversational Skills 1. Children’s speech is often directed towards themselves rather than to another person. 2. Piaget called children’s talk “collective monologues” or conversations between children that involve a series of non-sequiturs 3. Vygotsky: Private Speech v. Assumptions children make in word learning 1. Mutual exclusivity 2. Whole-object assumption 3. Pragmatic cues 4. Linguistic context in which a novel word occurs 5. Object shape 6. Cross-situational word learning e. Morphological development (36+ mo) 4. Theories of language development a. Behaviourist Theory i. B.F Skinner, Pavlov ii. Language is learned through environmental interactions and conditioning iii. Direct instruction is needed to learn the language b. Noam Chomsky’s Theory of Universal Grammar i. Core knowledge Perspective (Nativist) ii. Humans are born with universal grammar or a hardwired set of principles and rules that govern grammar in all languages. iii. No direct teaching is necessary. c. Social Interactionist Theory i. Sociocultural Perspective (Lev Vygotsky) ii. Language is acquired through social interactions, communication with others, and cultural context. d. Connectionist Theory i. Information-processing perspective ii. Language is learned through the gradual strengthening of neural connections in the brain. e. Nature Vs/And Nurture f. Nature (Innate factors): Chomsky’s theory of universal grammar g. Nurture (environmental factors): Behaviourist and Social Interactionist theory h. Interaction between nature and nurture: Connectionist theory 5. Associated Factors With Language Development a. Attachment i. Attachment relationships help children learn emotional regulations and coping strategies, which are linked to language development. ii. Language is a tool for expressing emotions, needs, and desires b. IOncome i. The number of words children know is related to the number of words that they hear. ii. “Word gap” c. Technology d. Aging i. Improvements/Maintenence in language skills with aging 1. Acquire new words and expand vocabulary 2. Maintain language comprehension and pragmatic language skills ii. Challenges with aging 1. Word-finding difficulties (tip of the tongue) 2. Difficulties with complex sentence structures 3. The slower rate of speech 4. Power speech clarity 6. Practical Implications a. Reach out and Read i. Increasing access to children’s books b. Parent-Child Mother Goose i. Helps parents learn to use rhymes, signs, and stories with their young infants c. Supermarket Speak i. Placing signs in supermarkets in low-ses neighbourhoods ii. Encourages parents to converse with children about foods they saw at the market d. 30 Million Words Initiative in Chicago i. The 3T’s ii. Tune in iii. Talk more iv. Take turns Lec 6: Intelligence 1. What is intelligence? a. 3 View of Intelligence i. Intelligence as a single trait 1. Intelligence is a single, overarching ability that influences task performance and many domains. 2. G = core cognitive ability ii. Intelligence is a few basic abilities 1. Intelligence is a few basic abilities 2. Fluid intelligence: Ability to solve new problems, reason, and use logic. (Abstract thinking) 3. Crystallized Intelligence: Knowledge of what we’ve learned before. 4. Thurston’s 7 Primary Mental Abilities a. Word Fluency: Ability to produce words quickly and efficiently in a specific category or based on certain constraints b. Verbal Meaning: Ability to understand written or spoken language c. Reasoning: Ability to think logically, solve problems, and make sound judgements based on information and evidence d. Spatial Visualization: Ability to mentally manipulate and understand relationships, shapes, and objects e. Numbering: Ability to understand and work with numerical concepts f. Rote Memory: Ability to memorize and recall information without necessarily understanding or applying it g. Perceptual Speed: Ability to quickly and accurately process and identify visual or auditory information, patterns, or symbols. iii. Intelligence, as many processes 1. Intelligence is a numerous and distinct process 2. Combination of many skills: a. Memory Span b. Associative memory c. Generating and applying strategies d. Attending e. Generalizing f. Perceiving g. Comprehending h. Reaction Time i. Encoding j. Planning k. Solving Problems l. Sequential Reasoning m. Etc. b. Reconciling the 3 Views i. Carrol’s Three Stratum Theory of Intelligence c. Alternative Views of Intelligence i. Multiple Intelligences Theory 1. Howard Gardner 2. People possess at least eight kinds of intelligence: a. Linguistic: Finding the right words to express what you mean b. Logical-Mathematical: Quantifying things, making hypotheses and proving them c. Spatial: Visualizing the world in 3D d. Musical: Discerning sounds, their pitch, tone, rhythm, and timbre e. Naturalistic: Understanding living things and reading nature f. Bodily-Kinesthetic: Coordinating your mind with your body g. Intrapersonal: Sensing people’s feelings and motives h. Interpersonal: Understanding yourself, what you feel, and what you want d. Theory of Successful Intelligence i. Robert Sternberg ii. Ecological Intelligence: Emphasis on the ability to adapt and thrive in one’s environment iii. Success in life depends on three types of abilities: 1. Analytic Abilities: Academic problem-solving and computation 2. Practical Abilities: Street smarts and common sense 3. Creative Abilities: Imaginative and innovative problem-solving e. Nonwestern perspectives of intelligence i. Eastern Perspectives ii. Indigenous Perspectives iii. African Perspectives f. So, what is intelligence? i. There is not a single “correct” theory of intelligence ii. Various theories and measures reveal that there are varied ways in which people can be intelligent 2. How do we measure intelligence? a. Intelligence tests i. Provide an overall quantitative measure of a child’s intelligence relative to that of other children (IQ: Intelligence Quotient) 1. Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test a. Ages 2-85+ b. 5 Factors i. Knowledge ii. Quantitative Reasoning iii. Visual-Spatial Processing iv. Working Memory v. Fluid Reasoning 2. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) a. Ages 6-16+ b. Consistent with Carroll's three-stratum theory of intelligence c. Five factors i. Verbal comprehension ii. Visual-spatial iii. Fluid reasoning iv. Working memory v. Processing speed 3. Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC-II) a. Ages 3-18 b. 5 Factors i. Simultaneous ii. Sequential iii. Planning iv. Learning v. Knowledge b. Continuity in IQ scores i. IQ scores may be the most stable of all psychological traits ii. The same children’s IQ scores at ages 5 and 15 are correlated at 0.67 (strongly correlated) iii. Debates about intelligence tests: 1. Pros a. Useful for predicting school grades, achievement test scores, and occupational success b. Can help identify children who need additional support c. Alternative evaluations by teachers or psychologists may be subject to greater bias 2. Cons a. Intelligence involves more complex abilities than can be assessed by current intelligence tests. b. Cultural bias in intelligence tests c. Reducing a person’s intelligence to a number is simplistic and ethically questionable. 3. What influences intelligence? a. Three major factors i. Society ii. Immediate Environment iii. Qualities of the Child b. Genetics and Gene-Environment Relations i. From childhood to adolescence/adulthood, genetic influence moves from moderate to large. ii. The influence of genetics on individual differences in intelligence increases over time, whereas the influence of shared aspects of the family environment decreases. iii. Sandra Scarr Proposed that gene-environment relations involve three types of processes. 1. Passive Effects 2. Evocative Effects 3. Active Effects c. Influence of Family i. HOME: Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment 1. Emotional and verbal responsivity of the parent 2. Provision of appropriate play materials 3. Organization and safety of the living space ii. Children’s IQ scores are correlated with scores on HOME d. Influence of Schooling i. Attending school makes children smarter e. Influence of Society i. Flynn Effect: The substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores ii. Poverty f. Project Head Start i. Immediate impact: Higher IQ and achievement test scores (but these effects may not be maintained) ii. Long Term ImpactsL 1. Greater likelihood of graduating from high school and enrolling in university, better health and social skills 2. Lower frequency of later being held back in school, using drugs, and delinquency Final Third of the Semester Lec 7: Social Development 1. Social Development a. The process by which a child learns to interact with others, form relationships, navigate social situations, and develop a sense of self in relation to others b. Why is Social Development Important? i. Language Development ii. Identity iii. Learning iv. Conflict v. Mental Health c. Theories of Social Development i. Consider social interaction as fundamental to development ii. Four key types of theories address social development: 1. Psychoanalytic Theories 2. Learning Theories 3. Social Cognitive Theories 4. Ecological Theories 2. Psychoanalytic Theories a. Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development i. Built on Freud’s psychosexual theory ii. Eight age-related stages of development 1. Trust vs. Mistrust a. 0-1 yo (Infancy) b. Conflict: Feeling secure and valued vs. feeling insecure and uncertain c. Successful Navigation: The foundation for secure attachment relationships and trust in relationships is built d. Failed navigation: Difficulty forming intimate relationships later in life 2. Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt a. 1-3 yo (Toddler) b. Conflict: Developing a sense of independence vs. Experiencing uncertainty and insecurity about their abilities c. Successful Navigation: Self-confidence and independence is fostered d. Failed Navigation: Experiences of insecurity, self-doubt, and dependence on others 3. Initiative vs. Guilt a. 3-6 yo (Preschool years) b. Conflict: Trying new things vs. feeling hesitant and self-conscious c. Successful Navigation: Leads to a sense of purpose and direction d. Failed Navigation: Results in guilt and lack of purpose 4. Industry vs. Inferiority a. 6-12 yo (School age) b. Conflict: Developing a sense of competence in academic, social, and personal tasks vs. feeling inadequate c. Successful Navigation: Fosters confidence, while failure may lead to feelings of inferiority d. Failed Navigation: Results in a sense of inferiority and sense of incompetence 5. Identity vs. Role Confusion a. 12-18 yo (Adolescence) b. Conflict: Forming a clear sense of self vs. feeling uncertain about one’s identity c. Successful navigation: Leads to an ability to stay true to oneself and understand one’s role in social relationships d. Failed Navigation: Results in role confusion and weak sense of self 6. Intimacy vs. Isolation a. 18-40 yo (Young adulthood) b. Conflict: Forming intimate, meaningful relationships vs. feeling disconnected and unable to form close bonds c. Successful navigation: Leads to deep, meaningful connections and love d. Failed navigation: Results in feelings of loneliness and isolation 7. Generativity vs. Stagnation a. 40-65 yo (Middle adulthood) b. Conflict: Feeling productive and valuable to others vs. feeling unfulfilled c. Successful navigation: Results in a sense of fulfillment and contribution d. Failed Navigation: Results in feelings of unproductiveness, detachment, and dissatisfaction with their impact on others 8. Integrity vs. Despair a. 65+ yo (Late adulthood) b. Conflict: Feeling at peace vs. feeling regretful and disappointed with missed opportunities or mistakes c. Successful Navigation: A sense of satisfaction, acceptance, and wisdom d. Failed Navigation: Regret, bitterness, and despair iii. The first five stages focus on childhood and adolescence b. Current Perspectives on Erikson’s Theory i. Strengths 1. Comprehensive framework of development throughout the entire lifespan 2. Emphasis on social influences 3. Emphasis on the search for identity in adolescence has had a lasting impact on research on identity development in adolescence. ii. Weaknesses 1. Many elements of the theory are vague 2. Limited empirical support 3. May not generalize to non-Western contexts c. Four groups of identity status (James Marcia) i. Identity development relates to where an adolescent falls on dimensions of identity exploration and commitment. 3. Learning Theories a. Focus on external factories in shaping social behaviour b. Emphasize continuity (vs. discontinuity) c. Focus on the role of specific mechanisms of change (e.g., reinforcement, observational learning) d. Behaviourism: Classical Conditioning & Operant Conditioning i. John B. Watson: Founder of Behaviourism ii. Development is determined by the child’s environment via learning through classical conditioning and operant conditioning. iii. Psychologists should study visible behaviour, not the “mind.” iv. Little Albert experiment e. B.F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning i. Like Watson, he believed that behaviour is shaped and controlled by using environmental factors. ii. Believed that “a person does not act upon the world, the world acts upon him.” iii. Operant Conditioning 1. We repeat behaviours that lead to favourable outcomes (reinforcement) 2. We suppress behaviours that result in unfavourable outcomes (punishment) f. Implications for Childrearing i. Attention can serve as a powerful reinforcer 1. Children often do things “just to get attention.” 2. Time-out (or temporary isolation): Systematically withdrawing attention and reinforcement for inappropriate behaviour ii. Behaviour that is intermittently reinforced is especially hard to extinguish. iii. Behaviour Modification Theory: A treatment approach based on the principles of behaviourism 1. Using reinforcement and punishment to increase desirable behaviours and decrease unwanted ones g. Social-Learning Theory i. Attempts to account for social development through learning processes and mechanisms ii. Emphasis on observation and imitation iii. Albert Bandura: Most human learning is inherently “social” in nature and is based on observation of other people iv. Children learn from: 1. Watching other people do it 2. Imitating what other people do 3. Indirect models (reading books, viewing screens) v. Vicarious reinforcement: Observing someone else receive a reward or punishment h. Social Cognitive Theory i. Over time, Bandura increasingly emphasized cognitive aspects of observational learning ii. Observational learning depends on several basic cognitive processes: 1. Attention to others’ behaviour 2. Encoding what is observed 3. Storing the information in memory 4. Retrieving information later to reproduce the behaviour observed earlier i. The active Role of the Child i. Reciprocal Determinism: Child-environment influences operate in both directions 1. The child is affected by and influenced by aspects of their social development. 2. Children’s characteristics lead them to seek certain kinds of interactions 3. Over time, these interactions influence children’s future environments j. Current Perspectives on Learning Theories i. Strengths 1. Learning theories can be empirically tested 2. There is extensive research on parental socialization behaviours and how children learn social behaviours. 3. Important practical applications (e.g., behaviour modification) ii. Weaknesses 1. The main focus is on behaviour (not brains or ‘minds’), so less attention is given to biological, perceptual, motor, cognitive, and language development. 4. Theories of Social Cognition a. Social cognition theories view children as active processors of social information. b. With advances in cognitive development, the way children think about themselves and others deepens and becomes more abstract. c. Self-Socialiazatiom: Active process whereby children actively shape their own development through their activity preference, friendship choices, etc. d. 3 Theories of Social Cognition i. Selman’s Stage theory of role-taking 1. Role Taking: The ability to think about something from another’s point of view 2. The ability to understand others’ perspectives progresses through five stages (early childhood to adolescence) 3. Their own perspective -> another person’s perspective -> most people’s perspective ii. Dodge’s social information processing theory 1. Children progress through different stages in their ability to think about other people: a. Undifferentiated Role-Taking (Prior age 5): Children fail to distinguish perspectives b. Social-Informational Role-Taking (ages 6~8): Children recognize that others have different information available to them and, thus, different perspectives c. Self-Reflective Role-Taking (ages 8-10): Children realize that someone else can have a different view and are also able to think about the other person’s point of view d. Third-party Role-Taking (ages 10-12): Children can take the view of a detached third-person and view the situation from that perspective e. Societal Role-Taking (ages 12 and older): Considers others’ perspectives with reference to a broader social context, considering societal values and norms. 2. Information processing approach to social cognition focused on aggression 3. Children with disruptive behaviour problems perceive, interpret, and make decisions about social information in ways that increase their likelihood of engaging in aggressive acts 4. 3 Key Mistakes in Social Information Processing a. Hostile attributional bias b. Generation of fewer responses c. More favourable evaluation of aggressive responses iii. Dweck’s attributional account of academic achievement (mindset theory) 1. Focuses on children’s different reactions to failure 2. Achievement Motivation: whether children are motivated by: a. Master (learning goals) b. Others' views of their success (Performance goals) 3. Incremental/Mastery Orientation a. Theory: Incremental theory of intelligence: The belief that intelligence can be developed through effort b. Motivated by: Desire for mastery c. Focus when evaluating performance: Effort d. Base sense of self-worth on Effort and learning (not on how others evaluate them) e. Growth Mindset 4. Entity/Helpless Orientation a. Theory: Entity Theory of Intelligence: The belief that intelligence is fixed and unchangeable b. Motivated by: Desire to be successful c. Focus when evaluating performance: Outcomes d. Base sense of self-worth on Approval they (do not) receive from other people e. Fixed Mindset e. Current Perspectives on Social Cognition Theories i. Strengths 1. Children are active seekers of information about their social world 2. The effect of children’s social experience depends on their own interpretation of those experiences ii. Weaknesses 1. Like learning theories, social cognitive theories have little to say about the biological factors in social development. 2. Underemphasizes the role of emotions 5. Ecological Theories a. Take a broad view of context and emphasize the role of the environment in social development. b. Ethological and evolutionary views relate child development to the context of the evolutionary history of our species. i. Focus: Understanding development in terms of a given animal’s evolutionary heritage ii. Species-Specific Behaviours: Behviours typically common to members of a particular species but not typically observed in other species iii. Ethology: The study of behaviour within an evolutionary context; attempts to understand behaviour in terms of adaptive (or survival) value 1. Imprinting: A process by which newborn birds and mammals of some species become attached to their mother at first sight and follow her everywhere 2. Humans do not imprint but show parallels: a. Infant preferences for face-like features b. Infant preferences for sounds, tastes, and smells familiar from experiences in the womb c. Attachment iv. Evolutionary Psychology 1. Applies the Darwinian concepts of natural selection and adaptation to human behaviours 2. Humans are motivated to behave in ways that preserve their genes in the gene pool of their species. 3. Large brains, slow development v. Play 1. One of the most salient forms of behaviour during the period of immaturity for most mammals 2. Play as an evolved platform for learning vi. Parental-Investment Theory 1. Parents are motivated by the drive to perpetuate their genes, which can only happen if their children survive long enough to pass those genes to the next generations. 2. Cinderella Affect: Rates of child maltreatment are considerably higher among stepparents than among biological parents c. The bioecological model considers how multiple levels of the environment simultaneously affect development. i. Brongenbrenner’s bioecological model ii. A child’s environment is a “set of nested structures, each inside the next.” iii. The child is in the middle, and the different levels vary in how immediate their effects are, but every level impacts the child’s development. iv. Microsystem 1. Immediate environment 2. Activities and relationships in which the child directly participates v. Mesosystem 1. Connections between environments 2. Interconnections among microsystems vi. Exosystem 1. Indirect environments 2. Setting that the child may not directly be a part of but that still influences development indirectly. vii. Macrosystem 1. Social and cultural values 2. General beliefs, values, customs, and laws of the larger society in which all the other levels are embedded viii. Chronosystem 1. Changes over time 2. Historical changes that influence other systems d. Children and the Media i. Media is situated in the exosystem ii. Sesame Street was the first Massive Open Online Course e. Current Perspectives on Ecological Theories i. Ethology & Evolutionary Psychology 1. Strengths a. Emphasis on children’s biology and genetic tendencies grounded in evolution 2. Weaknesses a. Claims are challenging to empirically est b. We tend to overlook our capacity to impact or change our environments and ourselves. ii. Bioecological model 1. Strengths a. Emphasis on context and the complexity of development 2. Weaknesses a. Lack of emphasis on biological factors Lec 8: Emotional Development 1. Theories of Social Development (cont.) a. Take a broad view of context and emphasize the role of the environment in social development. i. Ethnological and evolutionary views relate child development to the evolutionary history of our species. 1. Focus: Understanding development in terms of a given animal’s evolutionary heritage 2. Ethology: The study of behaviour within an evolutionary context; attempts to understand behaviour in terms of adaptive (or survival) value 3. Evolutionary Psychology: Applies the Darwinian concepts of natural selection and adaptation to human behaviours 4. Etiology a. Species-specific behaviours: Behaviours common to members of a particular species but not typically observed in other species b. Imprinting c. Humans do not imprint, but show some parallels: i. Preference for face-like features ii. Preference for sounds, tastes, smells, familiar from the womb iii. Attachment 5. Evolutionary Psychology a. Applies the Darwinian concepts of natural selection and adaptation to human behaviours b. Humans are motivated to behave in ways that preserve their genes in the gene pool of the species. ii. The bioecological model considers how multiple levels of the environment simultaneously affect development. 2. Ecological Theories 3. Emotional Development 4. Emotions a. What are emotions? i. Have several components (Carroll Izard): 1. Neural/cognitive component 2. Physiological component 3. Subjective feelings component 4. Expressive component 5. Behavioural Component/Desire to take action b. The Nature and Emergence of Emotions i. Discrete Emotions Theory: 1. Emphasis on the existence of distinct or discrete emotions 2. Neurological and biological systems evolved to allow humans to experience and express a set of basic emotions through adaptation. 3. Emphasizes evolution and adaptation 4. Emotions are innate/evolved over the course of human evolution 5. Emotional responses are largely automatic (not based on cognition)

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