Chapter 1: The Study of Human Development PDF

CHAPTER 1: THE STUDY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Human Development \- Scientific study of the systematic process of change and stability in people \- Developmentalists look at ways in which people change from conception through maturity as well as characteristics that remain fairly stable \- An underst...

CHAPTER 1: THE STUDY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Human Development \- Scientific study of the systematic process of change and stability in people \- Developmentalists look at ways in which people change from conception through maturity as well as characteristics that remain fairly stable \- An understanding of adult development can help people understand and deal with life transitions Life-span Development \- "Tomb to womb," compromising the entire human life span from conception to death \- Concept of human development as a lifelong process, which can be studied scientifically \- Growth and development are more obvious during these times given the rapid pace of change \- Development includes more than infancy and childhood \- Develop can be either: \< Positive -- e.g., toilet training and enrolling in a college course after retirement \< Negative -- e.g., wetting the bed after a traumatic event or isolating yourself after retirement events such as the timing of parenthood, maternal employment, and marital satisfaction are now also studied as part of developmental psychology. GOALS OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 1\) Describe \- Development is necessary to focus both on typical patterns of change (normative development) and individual variations in patterns of change (idiographic development) \- developmentalists observe large groups of children and establish norms, or averages, for behavior at various ages (children saying their first word or how large their vocabulary) 2\) Explain \- Explain the changes they have observed in relation to normative processes and individual differences \- Often easier to describe development than to explain how it occurs \- How children acquire language and why some children learn to speak later than usual 3\) Predict \- Predict future behavior, such as the likelihood that a child will have serious speech problems 4\) Intervene \- Understanding of how language develops may be sued to intervene in development (giving a child speech therapy) Development is messy. Its complex and multifaceted and shaped by interacting arcs of influence. Thus, development is best understood with input from a variety of theoretical and research orientations and is most appropriately studied using multiple disciplines. DOMAINS OF DEVELOPMENT (aspects of the self) Physical Development \- Growth of body, brain, including patterns of change in sensory capacities, motor skills, and health Cognitive Development \- Pattern of change in mental abilities, such as learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity. Psychosocial Development \- Pattern of change in emotions, personality, and social relationships \< Domains are interrelated: each aspect of development affects the others. \< Puberty (dramatic physical changes and hormonal changes affect the developing sense of self) Older adults (physical changes in the brain may lead to intellectual and personality deterioration) \< Cognitive advances and declines are related to physical and psychosocial development \< Memory development reflects gains or losses in physical connections in the brain. \< Cognitive advances and declines are related to physical and psychosocial development. \< Motivation and self-confidence are important contributors to school success, whereas negative emotions such as anxiety can impair performance. PERIOD OF LIFESPAN Social Construction \- A concept or practice that may appear natural and obvious to those who accept it, but that in reality is an invention of a particular culture \< or society Major developments in eight periods of human development. INFLUENCES OF DEVELOPMENT Individual Differences \- Differences in characteristics, influences, or developmental outcomes \- Each person has a unique developmental trajectory, an individual path to follow \- One challenge in developmental psychology: to identify the universal influences on development, and then apply those understanding individual differences in developmental trajectories Heredity, Environment, and Maturation Heredity \- Influences on development primarily originated \- Inborn traits or characteristics inherited from the biological parents Environment \- Where influences come largely \- The world outside the self, beginning in the womb, and the learning that comes from the experiences \- Totality of nonhereditary, or experiential influences on development \< Intelligence is strongly influenced by heredity, parental stimulation, education, peer influence, and other variables also affect it. Maturation \- Unfolding of a natural sequence of physical and behavioral changes \- Individual differences in innate characteristics and life experience play a greater role \- Maturation continues to influence certain biological processes, such as brain development \< We need to look at the inherited characteristics that give each person a start in life. We also need to consider the many environmental factors that affect development. \< We need to consider how heredity and environment interact. We need to understand which developments are primarily maturational and which are not. Context of Development Nuclear Family \- Normative family unit in the US and other Western societies \- Two-generational kinship, economic, and household unit consisting of one or two parents and their biological children, adopted children, or stepchildren Extended Family \- Traditional family form; where they have daily contact with kin \- Multigenerational kinship network of parents, children, and other relatives, sometimes living together in an extended- family household Socioeconomic Status (SES) \- Based on the family income and the educational and occupational levels of adults in the household \- Developmental process and developmental outcomes Culture \- A societies or group's total way of life, including customs, traditions, beliefs, values, language, and physical products---all learned behavior, passed on from parents to children \- Culture is constantly changing, often through contact with other cultures Ethnic Group \- A group united by ancestry, race, religion, language, or national origins, which contribute to a sense of shared identity. \< Ethnic and cultural patterns affect development by their influence. Race \- Historically and popularly viewed as an identifiable biological category, is more accurately defined as a social construct. \- As a social category remains a factor in research because it makes difference \- Term race, historically and popularly viewed as an identifiable biological category, is more accurately defined as social construct \< Categories of culture, race, and ethnicity are fluid "continuously shaped and redefined by social and political forces" \< Geographical dispersion and intermarriage together with adaption to varying local conditions have produced a great heterogeneity of physical and cultural characteristics within populations Ethnic gloss -- (black or Hispanic) an over generalization that obscures or blurs such variations Historical Context -- how certain experiences, tied to time and place, affect the course of people's lives. Today, the historical context is an important part of the study of development Normative and Nonnormative Influences Normative influences: \< biological/environmental events that affect many or most people in a society in similar ways and events that touch only certain individuals \< Normative age-graded influences -- highly similar for people in a particular age group. The timing of biological events is fairly predictable within a normal range. \< (Ex: people don't experience puberty at age 35/ menopause at 12) \< Normative history-graded influences -- significant events (WWII or Great Depression) that shape the behavior and attitudes of a historical generation -- a group of people who experience the event at a formative time in their lives Cohort -- a group of people born at about the same time. A historical generation may contain more than one cohort, but cohorts are part of a historical generation only if they experience major, shaping historical events at a formative point in their lives Nonnormative influences are unusual events that have a major impact on individual lives because they disturb the expected sequence of the life cycle \- Ex: a typical time of life (death of a parent when a child is young) or atypical event (surviving a plane crash) \- Some of these influences are largely beyond a person's control and may present rare opportunities/severe challenges that the person perceives as turning points \- People sometimes help create their own nonnormative life events---and participate actively in their own development Timing of Influences: Critical or Sensitive Periods \< Konrad Lorenz -- Austrian zoologist, showed that newly hatched ducklings will instinctively follow the first moving object they see, whether it is a member of their species or not. \< Imprinting -- automatic and irreversible; the result of predisposition toward learning: the readiness of an organism's nervous system to acquire a certain information during a brief critical period in early life \< Critical period -- specific time when a given event/its absence, has a specific impact of development. \- If necessary, events do not occur during a critical period of maturation, normal development will not occur; and the resulting abnormal patterns may be irreversible \- Length of this period is not fixed \- Is controversial, because many aspects of development, even in physical domain, have been found to show: \< Plasticity -- modified performance \< Sensitive periods -- time in development when a person is particularly open to certain kinds of behavior experiences \- Plasticity are individual differences in plasticity responses to environmental events as well \- Difficult temperaments and highly reactive children: more profoundly affected by childhood experiences, whether positive or negative, than other children \- Characteristics generally assumed to be negative---such as difficult or reactive temperament---can be adaptive (positive) when the environment is supportive of development The Life-Span Developmental Approach \< Widely accepted conceptual framework for the study of life-span development: 1\) Development is lifelong \- Lifelong process of change \- Each period of life span is affected by what happened before and will affect what is to come \- Each period has unique characteristics and value. No period is more/less important than any other 2\) Development is multidimensional \- Occurs along multiple interacting dimensions---biological, psychological and social---each of which may develop a varying rate 3\) Development is multidirectional \- Children grow mostly in one direction. Then the balance gradually shifts. Adolescents typically gain in physical abilities, but their facility in learning a new language typically declines 4\) Relative influences of biology and culture shift over the life span \- Influenced by both biological and culture, but the balance between these influences' changes 5\) Development involves changing resource allocations \- Resources may be used for growth, for maintenance/ recovery/for dealing with loss when maintenance and recovery are not possible 6\) Development shows plasticity \- Many abilities such as memory, strength, and endurance can be improved significantly with training and practice, even in late life \- Children has plasticity limits that depend in part on the various influence of development \- Task of developmental research: to discover to what extent particular kinds of development can be modified at various ages 7\) Development is influenced by the historical and cultural context \- Each person develops within multiple contexts---circumstances/conditions define in part by maturation and in part by time and place CHAPTER 2: THEORY AND RESEARCH \< Theory -- coherent set of logically related concepts that seek to organize, explain, and predict data \< Hypotheses -- possible explanations for phenomena, used to predict the outcome of research \- Theories can be disproved but never proved, and they can change to incorporate new things \< Developmental science cannot be completely objective. Theories and research about human behavior are products of human individuals, whose inquiries and interpretations are inevitably influenced by their own values and experience. \< The way theorists explain development depends in part on their assumptions about two basic issues: 1\) Whether people are active or reactive in their own development 2\) Whether development is continuous or occurs in stages 3\) Whether development is more influenced by heredity or by environment ISSUE 1: IS DEVELOPMENT ACTIVE OR REACTIVE? \< John Locke held that a young child is a tabula rasa -- a "blank slate" upon which the society writes. \< How the child developed, in either positive or negative ways, depended entirely on experiences. \< Jean Jacques Rousseau believed that children are born "noble savages" who develop according to their own positive natural tendencies if not corrupted by society. \< Reactive development -- conceptualizes the developing child as a hungry sponge that soaks up experiences and is shaped by this input over time \< Active development -- argue that people create experiences for themselves and are motivated to learn about the world around them. \< Things aren't just happening to them; they are involved in making their world what it is Mechanistic Model \- People are like machines that react to environmental input \- Machines do not operate of their own will; they react automatically to physical forcesor inputs \- Human behavior is much the same; it results from the operation of biological parts in response to external or internal stimuli \- Mechanistic researchers want to identify the factors that make people behave as they do \- Environmental influences are looked as factors in explaining behavior Organismic Model \- Sees people as active, growing organisms that set their own development in motion. \< Their initiate events; they do not just react. \< This the driving force for change is internal. \ soccer practice-\> trait reinforced reactive or evocative: based on their traits, children evoke responses from others which fosters trait ○ ex- child is skilled in soccer-\> coaches and parents encourage-\> trait reinforced active or niche-picking: choosing an environment that suits your traits ○ ex- child is athletic-\> they choose to play soccer, etc. Stages of Prenatal Development (Gestation) germinal ○ conception-2 weeks ○ relatively safe from teratogens day 1: fertilization day 2: cell division beings (mitosis) day 3-4: 16 cells, travels down fallopian tube toward uterus day 5: cell mass forms, called a blastocyst (about size of a pinhead) day 6-7: blastocyst attaches to wall of uterus day 8-14: blastocyst becomes fully embedded in wall of uterus (now consists of about 250 cells) embryonic ○ 2-8 weeks ○ organogenesis the forming of organs cell production and differentiation ○ organs and major systems develop respiratory digestive nervous ○ risk of spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) is high highest risk to environmental factors (teratogens) ○ 6-8 weeks male embryos begin to produce testosterone: internal and external structure fetal ○ 8 weeks-birth (usually 37-42 weeks) organs, body becomes more complex toenails, eyelids bone forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain, spinal cord ○ more specialized movements after 22 weeks facial expressions coordinated hand movements Teratogens: environmental factors that cause birth defects tobacco and nicotine ○ most important factor in low birth weight alcohol ○ most common cause of mental retardation ○ leading preventable cause of birth defects ○ fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) marijuana ○ studies on the effects are sparse Prenatal and Childbirth Care the socioeconomic status of the mother/family determines most of these factors: ○ education ○ social services ○ nutritional services ○ antibiotics ○ anesthesia during childbirth Infant Mortality Rate in the U.S. the infant mortality rate has decreased dramatically from the 1900's ○ due to the prevention of SIDS, more effective medical treatments and technologies, antibiotics, vaccinations, hospital births