Exploring Lifespan Development - Chapter 1
Traditional Behaviorism
Directly observable events, stimuli and responses began in America with John Watson Watson was inspired by Pavlov's dogs and Classical Conditioning: UCS - Meat unconditioned stimulus UCR - Salivate unconditioned response CS - conditioned stimulus - bell CR - conditioned response - salivate
Development is Lifelong
Lifespan perspective A leading dynamic systems approach. Four assumptions make this broader view. 1) lifelong 2)multidimensional and multidirectional 3) highly plastic 4)affected by multiple, interacting forces 5) continued~Influenced by biology, history, social, and cultural
G. Stanley Hall
One of the most influential American psychologists and founder of childhood study movement - The Normative period
Psychoanalytical Perspective
People move through a series of stages in which they confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectations. How these are dealt with determines the persons ability to grow and learn and get along with others Freud founder of psychoanalytical movement and Erikson were strongly influential with this
correlation coefficient
a number that describes how two measures, variables are associated with eachother
Sensitive period
a time that is optimal for certain capacities to emerge and when the individual is especially reponsive to environmental influences. However, boundaries are less well defined than those of the critical period. Development can occur later but it is harder to induce.
Naturalistic observation
go into the field or natural environment and record the behavior of interest
Nature
inborn traits from genetics, born with tendencies to repsond certain ways
Clinical interviews
researchers use a flexible conversational style to probe for the participants point of view
Human Development
scientific study of age related changes in behavior, thinking, emotion and personality
Information Processing
the human mind might also be viewed as a symbol manipulating system through which information flows called -information processing
Age related changes classified in 3 categories
1 Universal Changes 2 Group Specific Changes 3 Individual Differences
Continuity Vs Discontinuity
Are age-related changes primarily about quantitative (continuity) or qualitative changes (discontinuity)?
Piagets - theory
As the brain develops and children's experiences expand they move through 4 broad stages: 1 - sensorimotor 2 - preoperational 3 - concrete operational 4 - formal operational
Developmental Science & Early Scientific Theories
A field of study devoted to understanding constancy and change throughout lifespan
Context example
A shy individual who fears social encounters develops in a very different context from those of an outgoing agemate who readily seeks company
Darwin: forefather of scientific child study
Adaptation to environment; 1 survival of the fittest 2 natural selection (certain species adapt to environment)
Multidimensional
Affected by intricate blend of biological, physiological, and social forces
Nonnormative influences
Age graded and history graded influences are normative and nonnormative events are irregular They have become so powerful and Age-graded influences less so in contemporary adults development Examples of nonnormative include things such as piano lessons and diversity, delayed marriage, things that differ in history and age graded influences from separate age groups that strongly affect a person's development. It's not nonnormative because the events that take place in the individuals life isn't predictable as well as the history that will appear in that time is unpredictable
Group Specific influences
Changes shared by all individuals who grow up together. Cultural, Historical share same experiences, that effect generation. Explain why people born around the same time tend to be alike in ways that separate them from other people born at different times
Piagets Cognitive developmental theory
Children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world
Universal influences
Common to every individual, wrinkles, social clock etc Events that are strongly related to age and time. Fairly predictable in when they occur and how long it will last
Ethology
Concerned with adaptive or survival cause of behavior and it's evolutionary history
Microsystem
Consists of activities and interaction patterns in the persons immediate surround (1st level of Branfenbrenners theory)
Behavior modification
Consists of procedures that combine conditions and modeling to eliminate undesirable behaviors and increase desirable responses
Macrosystem
Cultural values like, laws, customs, and resources (4th)
Vygotskys sociocontrust theory
Culture, values, beliefs, of a social group were transmitted to the next generation. Necessary for children to adopt these to keep the community's culture alive
Freud's Psychosexual theory
Emphasizes development based on sexual growth Three parts Id, ego, super ego integrated into five parts oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital
Social learning theory Albert Bandura
Emphasizes modeling aka imitation or observational learning, as a powerful source of development
Mesosysyem
Encompasses connections between microsystems (2nd level)
Eriksons Psychosocial theory
Eriksons theory. The ego makes a positive contribution to development acquiring attitudes and skills that make the individual an active contributing member of society.
Common Research Methods
Experiments, searching for the cause and effect relationships
Multidirectional
Good then bad then good again. Growth and decline of given variables
Nature / Nurture controversy
Heredity versus environmental factors. Both aid in development but differ in how a person develops
Freud's Three parts of the Personality; Three levels of consciousness:
ID-unconscious; Largest portion of the mind, present at birth source of biological needs/desires Ego-conscious; Current thoughts, rational part of mind emerges in early infancy redirects id impulses acceptably Superego-the conscience, develops from ages 3-6 from interactions with caregivers
Structured Interview
Including test and questions in which each participant is asked the same set of questions
Structured observations
Investigators set up laboratory observations that evoke the behavior of interest so that every participant as equal opportunity to display response
Philosophical Roots
Long history early philosophers trying to explain Human Development: Why do some grow up good/bad? Internal/external factors? Original sin/Christian doctrine? Innate goodness (jean-jacques rousseau)? Bad behavior is learned from others or happens in efforts to express innate goodness? The blank slate (tabula raza) john locke Experience and forms are imprinted/ external environmental factors
Normative approach
Measures of behavior are taken on large numbers of individuals, age related
Development is Plastic
Plasticity Change throughout life
Discontinuity
Qualitative change involves reorganiztaion and emergence of new strategies, qualities or skills 10 year old friendships can have new levels of intimacy Qualitative changes in thinking, feeling, and behaving that characterize specific periods of development
Continuity
Quantitative change (in amount) 2 year old has no individual friends in her playgroup
BF Skinner Operant conditioning
Reinforcers and punishments Positive/negative reward to change behavior
Exosystem
Social setting that do not Contain the developing persons but nevertheless affecting g experience in immediate settings (3rd level)
Watson's little Albert experiment;
UCS - White furry rat USR - no fear CS - Loud noise when rat was in view CR - Fear
Contexts
Unique combinations of personal and environmental circumstances that can result in different paths of change
Ecological systems theory
Views the person as developing withing a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels of the surrounding environment (bronfenbrenner)
Self Reports
ask participants to provide information about their perceptions
Clinical or case study method
brings together a wide range of information on one person, including interviews, observations and test scores
Developmental cognitive neuroscience
brings together researchers from psychology, biology, neuroscience and medicine to study the relationship between changes in the brain and developing persons cognitive processing and behavior patterns
Continuous or Discontinuous Development?
continuous a process of gradually augmenting the same types of skills that were there to begin with discontinuous a process in which new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times
Nurture
learned traits from the environment internal models of experience, how you are effected depends on how you intrepret interpretations of experience is organized into sets of assumptions/expectations person has about themself and another person ecological - school, neighborhood, parents upbringing
ethnography
like the clinical method, research is a descriptive qualitative technique, but instead of aiming to understand a single indiv it is directed toward understanding a culture or distinct social group
Chronosystem
prefix means time: chronosystem is what Bronfenbrenner called the temporal dimensions of his model
Correltional Design
researchers gather information on individuals generally in natural life circumstances without alter their experiences
Domains of Development
scientist use four broad categories 1 Physical Domain-changes in size, shape, characteristices of the body 2 Cognitive Domain-thinking, memory intellectual skills 3 Social Domain-Relationship of individual to others 4 Emotional Domain- Understanding expression of emotions
Goal of Psychology
to describe, explain, predict and control (influence) behavior and mental processes