PSYC10004 Developmental Psychology

Universality and cultural variability

"A culture is a socially transmitted or socially constructed constellation consisting of practices, competencies (thinking, reasoning, and problem solving), ideas, schemas, symbols, values, norms, institutions, goals, constitution rules, artefacts, and modifications of the physical environment." Ideas: not just the concepts, but the ways we learn them. To what extent does a person's developmental pathway reflect the forms of interactive culture?

Realising what it means to be an adolescent

1904 heightened period of storm and stress. Changes in senses in the voice, instincts, institutions, growth. Understanding where current research comes from. Highlighting assumptions. Recognising that these life periods are social constructions, times of active development, worthy of study in their own right.

What is intelligence and why does it matter?

A person possesses a certain amount of general intelligence (g), that influence their ability on all intellectual tasks. (cognitive ability, general mental ability, general intelligence factor = intelligence) "The capacity to learn from experience and adapt to one's environment" is intelligence. Attention, memory, analysis, planning, social awareness, emotional control, inhibition, persistence Intelligence is both developmental and contextual

Reshaping what it meas to be a child

An infant is a blank state (family/parents mould/write on them) - John Locke. Children must be allowed to develop at their own pace, shielded from our corrupt society (saw a lot of conflict and injustice in his childhood)- Rousseau.

One Dimension of Intelligence approach

MA: Binet and Simon devised a test to measure intellectual development in children. It had been found some students did not progress forwards into the next grade like others, so why was this happening? Some needed more support than others. Level of support depends on their mental ages. Numerical reasoning, other types of questions (e.g. which of these words is least like the other), to assess skills. (Assumes developmental trajectory of intelligence can be changed). The typically developing child should be able to answer questions typical for their chronological age. Intellectually impaired child would be able to answer fewer and easier questions than expected.

Defining wellbeing

Media portrayal - diet, beauty, travel, out in the morning with your arms out Eudemonic side (living a good life, contributing to society, being loved, self-determination theory), hedonic side (seeking pleasure and avoiding pain - happiness, emotion), H&E (positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment), Udi-dimensional, indigenous (connection to community)

Gene environment interdependence 4 relationships

Michael Rutter. Not just behaviour/G/E. More like Behaviour/G/E/G/E etc, with all interacting Epigenetics effects of environments on genes Variations in heritability according to environmental circumstances Gene-environment correlations Gene-environment interactions

Enduring themes

Nature and Nurture The Active Child Continuity/Discontinuity Mechanisms of Change Universality and context specificity Individual Differences Research and Children's Welfare.

Falsifiable, internally consistent, supported by data

Needs to be able to find evidence that the theory is wrong. E.g. all swans are white: find a black swan makes this theory falsifiable Different hypotheses need to support each other e.g. Observation: my dog hides when he hears thunder, hypotheses: my dog is scared of thunder, theory: my dog is scared of loud noises. Dog hides from power tools, but gets excited when spots is on, therefore need to find another theory that is more internally consistent Remember, not all data is created equal - different collections of data

A good theory

Needs to be falsifiable, internally consistent and supported by data

Behavioural observations

Observing people in their everyday surroundings. Ideal for younger people who lack verbal skills, and for generating many observations. Some behaviours occur infrequently and unexpectedly, observer bias (people act differently when they know they're being watched), difficult to isolate the cause of the behaviour as many events happen at the same time. E.g. Jane Goodall watching the chimps. The baby biography.

Research designs and methods

Once developmental scientists have formulated hypotheses, chosen a sample and decided on what to measure and how to measure it, they can test their hypotheses with different research designs. Three main methods are used in developmental research: the case study, experimental design, correlation design.

Child's phenotype impact on child's environment: Passive

Passive: Children's genotypes and phenotypes flourish within the environment created by their parents (who have the same genotypes). Passive: Modelling behaviour, manner of interaction, general home environment, facilitating experiences, encouraging for particular behaviours and attitudes. E.g. child of athlete will be exposed to more sports. This impact decreases over time

Gene-environment interactions

Reproducible interactions between genes and environment. E.g. understanding of natural selection, recessive and dominant genes, heritability

What makes a good study

Sample selection and data collection

Nature and nurture

They work together. Missing the point to pit them against each other.

Why study Developmental psych?

To understand human nature, shape social policy and enrich human life. We are all on our own pathways. Even if we seem like a homogenous group, it is much more complex than that. We all have our own motivations, our own backgrounds, our differences in perspective and understanding.

Universality and context specificity

To what extent is development universal across context/cultures, or are exclusive to specific ones.

Parents genotype-child genotype

Transmission of chromosomes and genes from parent to offspring. Dominant & recessive genotypes. Yellow/green peas. Brown/blonde hair

Historical perspective of childhood

Until the 18th century: Children as "human becoming's" - undeveloped adults just waiting to be of a size to be able to contribute to the family and society as an adult, not cute or fragile or needing protection. Impacts of the industrial revolution on childhood and adolescence: mass education (distinctively different from adult life) and child labour (doing things that adults couldn't do - a lot of workplace deaths that adults were not okay with). More choices with life and work.

Psychological measurements

Using electrodes or fMRI to measure activity in the brain (or heartrate etc). Hard to fake results (exception: lie detector test, not reliable), can determine which areas of the brain are involved in particular cognitive activities. Very expensive, time-consuming, not always clear what is being assessed. E.g. helping an actor who cannot reach an object - observing, making a decision, helping. Measuring pupil dilation for level of arousal.

Different approaches

WEMWEBS: unidimensional approach, statements like "I have been relaxed, I have been ale to make up my own mind, I have been feeling good about myself" PERMA: If you're doing well in all 5 areas you're doing well. Ryff's wellbeing scale: Cognitive, neuro, social, developmental - how do all these theories apply to wellbeing? Her scale covers 7 dimensions, but has a 72-item scale.

WISC

Wechsler Intelligence Test for Children. Most common for children 6+. Verbal and performance section Verbal: information, vocabulary, similarities, arithmetic, comprehension, digit span Performance: picture arrangement, object assembly, picture completion, block design, coding, mazes (more about processing speed). Cultural element - needing to know numbers and letter (prior cultural knowledge)

Cultural transitions

What about for people who transition from one culture to another? Data is clear: it's very difficult to move from one to another. Around 30% of the population globally lives as an immigrant. Socio cultural (e.g. fitting in, contact with culture), psychological (e.g. well-being, distress)

Mechanisms for change

What are needed for developmental change to occur? Migration, genetic drift, natural selection. Individual level - transtheoretical model of recovery (precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, maintenance, action)

Correlation design

Determining whether 2 or more variables are related in a systematic way. A correlation coefficient is calculated which ranges in value from -1.0 to +1.0 (as one variable increased the other decreased, change in one does not mean change in the other, as one variable increased the other increases)

The Koori IQ test

Developed to demonstrate how value of knowledge is culturally constructed. What it is like to be assessed and graded on the basis of unfamiliar criteria. Most people will get heaps wrong - shows the impact of crystallised knowledge.

Why wellbeing matters

Developmental pathways approach - wellbeing both contributes to and is affected by our developmental experiences. It can be both the dependent or the independent variable.

Genetic Variation

Estimates the amount of genetic variation between people in a population beyond that accounted for by genetic determination. E.g. number of fingers in one hand: genetic determination is high. Heritability of number of fingers is very low. This is not used for individual analysis, only population

Issues with the WISC

What we measure with tests is not what tests measure - not information, not spatial perception, not reasoning ability. These are only means to an end. What intelligence tests measure, what we hope they measure, is something much more important. The capacity of an individual to understand the world about him and his resourcefulness to cope with its challenges.

Wellbeing and student success

academic, social, personal, and intrinsic success? Is student wellbeing the outcome or input measure. Asking students what success means and how they achieve it. Academic, personal, future pathways, social, other. (Answers included new friends, managing stress, fun, getting qualification, good grades, dream life, know what I want, opinions of others) How well people feel they're achieving success maps onto their wellbeing, only if it was personal success (not grades, but learning etc). Many factors contribute to student wellbeing. Investigating young adults wellbeing helps in identifying student full potential and most positive trajectories

Benefits of correlation design

allows for observations of people as they are to determine whether there are relationships among their experiences, characteristics and developmental outcomes. Can learn about multiple factors operating in the 'real world'. Cannot make assumptions, and it's possible the association is caused by a third variable. Correlation =/= causation e.g. strong positive correlation between cheese consumption and people dying tangles in their bed sheets.

WISC scores among ethnic groups

average IQ of euro-American children is higher than that of African-American children. Does this indicate a cultural difference in intelligence? Patterns refer only to statistical means, not individual scores. More variability within groups than between them. Perhaps reflects differences in crystallised and visuo-spatial tests.

Indigenous Social and emotional wellbeing framework

connection to: spirit, spirituality and ancestors, land and country, culture and community, family and kinship, mind and emotions, body. Very hard to measure this type of approach

Nature and nurture: what does it mean?

correlation between genes and IQ. SES of the family (adoption vs born into) genetics and living together matters

Universality and context specificiy examples

e.g. relationship between father's occupational status and children's math achievement (correlation exists for US, but not for Japan or Canada - depends on culture). How much do social and family factors influence children's intelligence? Risk factors include mother's interaction with child, parental approach, mother's anxiety, father absence, family size, mother's educational attainment, major stressful like events, occupation of the head of the household, disadvantaged minority status etc

Piagetian theory

emphasizes the child as the virtually in depended constructor of his own development, an emphasis that undervalues the contribution of other people to cognitive development, and excludes teaching and cultural influences

A meta-theory (relationships between theories) of development

self-determination theory. Tendency for mastery and growth are innate but not automatic. Social environments support and constrain capacity for growth. Two theories: 3 basic psychological needs (belonging, relationships - not one of the three, competence - feeling challenged and supported at different levels, autonomy - making informed decisions, autonomous motivation is finding value in the discipline = wellbeing) Limitation: culturally laden framework. Intrinsic motivation and wellbeing

A theory

set of propositions or statements that describe relationships between concepts. Supported by hypotheses, hypotheses tested by observing behaviour. Hypothesis: concept A is related to B (need to measure A and B) by way of...Need data and to observe the different measures.

Wellbeing of uni students: what do they need?

more support from teachers, better inclusion, stress. Theme of what teachers should do: respond to individuals needs 48%.

sample selection

representative of the population of interest, randomly drawn from the population (increases confidence that conclusions will be true for the entire population). Intension of this sample generalising to a larger population.

The understanding of why humans develop in the ways they do is best advanced when...

results of different kinds of studied converge. Experiments demonstrated a clear cause-effect relationship that is reflected in correlational studies of the same variables. The results of multiple studies addressing the same question can be synthesised to product overall conclusions using the research method of meta-analysis

Mechanisms for change - what does it mean in reality?

school attendance matters, making children 'smarter'. Mean IQ scores rise during the school year and drop during the summer break

schemas and symbols

visual special memory. Kearins, J.M 1981. 'Look hard at all the things and try to remember where they are', then everything moved. In every case the indigenous young people performed better. Why? Distinction in how they engaged - European were picking things up, naming them, talking it through. Indigenous would pick it up, quietly look around the board and put it down. Memory of location over labelling. Impact of culture on cognitive processes

Wellbeing of uni students

where is wellbeing already being promoted? Describing a time they felt good: tutorials/grades, being with friends/community, accomplishment/relief, clubs/events/being outside. Social, academic and emotional experiences (friends, lectures) contribute positively to wellbeing in regards to university. Feeling confident is contributing negatively to wellbeing, because if their best experience is feeling confident it means they are usually not feeling confident.

Thurstone's seven primary mental ability

word fluency, verbal comprehension, inductive reasoning, spatial visualisation, number facility, associative memory, perceptual speed.

Child development approach

How do genetics and the environment affect children's development? How can we conduct research with children while protecting their human rights? What can psychology tell us about effective child-reading and child mental health?

Lifespan approach

How do we change across our life span? How do we stay the same? How do we recover from trauma? What supports are effective, for whom? To what extend to we actively shape our lives or passively respond to what's around up.

Individual differences

How to children with a shared background become different from each other? Two people's experience of any given event are never the same.

How does culture shape our development?

Children are active in their development, making decisions about preferences (favourite people and activities, behaviours (play, response to emotions and others) and values (etiquette, fairness), but they are not the only active contributor

Child's phenotype impact on child's environment: Active

Children seek out environmental niches that are most compatible with their predisposition - this increases over time. Evocative: child's attributes affect how others interact with them (smiley vs moody baby evokes different reactions from others) - this stays stable over time

What do these items measure?

Corresponding analysis: identified sets of items that discriminate between children of the same age (where you expect people to measure based on their age) Factor analysis: determines various patterns of abilities (as factors or structures), distinguished commonalities or differences in patterns of response across those sets of items. Informs different theories of the structure of intelligence

Two Dimensions of Intelligence theory

Crystallised (information we learn - trivial knowledge, writing, reading, numeracy, builds over time) and fluid intelligence (changes and adapts to the environment around them). WE have to measure both and consider these as separate dimensions. When we measure this, we see that crystallised intelligence improves throughout our life, whereas our fluid decreases at a very similar rate.

Influence on problem sholving

Cultural ideas - analogous sources (folk lore, fairy tales, parables) >>>Novel experience - insight problems (moral dilemma, adaptive task, unfamiliar decision)

Gene-environment correlations

Examine the genetic influences on a person's exposure to different environments. Shaping and selecting environments, genetics influence a person's decisions about exposure to risky or protective environments.

Family studies

Experimental design? Can't separate families, force adoption, force twins. Observational design is best - identify adoption families, report patters. Adoptive designs: Bio/genetic: 50% genes. Bio/home: pre-adoption (if at all). Adoptive/genetic (0% genes). Adoptive/home enviro (post-adoption) Twin design. Identical/fraternal. Zygote(1/2)/genetic makeup (100%/50%)/ placenta(shared or different/different)/ family environment (shared)/ family relationships (different)

A few dimensions of intelligence theory

Gardner's domains - Linguistic, interpersonal, spatial, kinaesthetic, logic/mathematical, musical, intrapersonal. It needs to be a skill with an underlying cognitive process, biological process, and have evolutionary benefits, we need to be able to find people who demonstrate this around us. Downfall - too broad if you open it up to anything, where does it stop? How many things can we keep calling intelligence?

Example of reasons for differences

General info: who discovered America? What so salt and water have in common? Comprehension: why should a promise be kept? What should you do if you find someone's wallet (African American children more likely to want to leave it alone, because if they touch it they think they'll get in trouble, they don't have faith in authorities don't want to give it to police)?

John Carrol's 3 tier model

General intelligence, generalised abilities (fluid intelligence, crystallised intelligence, general memory and learning, broad visual perception broad auditory perception, broad retrieval ability, broad cognitive speediness, processing speed), many specific processes

Genetically vs environmentally determined development

Genetically determined development: Epigenetics, DNA, genes, appearance, personality. Evolutionary behaviours, cell maturation, biological system Environmentally determined development: Family, environment, culture, education, personality, trauma, values, learning

Research and children's welfare

How can research promote children's welfare? How can there be safe and meaningful interactions?

The active child

How do children shape their own development? Thinking for themselves, making their own decisions about how they're going to act.

IQ calculation and criticism

IQ = mental age/chronological age x 100 The problem with this - doesn't allow for much improvement. People started to use this to express intelligence (something that IS meant to change over time). IQ became predictive of occupational/academic/economic success.

Childs environment impact on child's phenotype

Impact of the environment on the child's phenotype (epigenetics). E.g. aversion to specific smells are passed down to later generations - events in ancestor's lives can have ongoing effects on our lives. Specific environments can be conducive to specific phenotypic expressions (norm of reaction - a physical environment that requires a specific phenotypic expression rewards the organism that has that expression, e.g. two plants with different phenotypes have different experiences of survival in the same environment)

Why do we need to know this?

Important to be aware of our assumptions, and predicting how they may change in the future. What do we know about children and childhood (innocence, learning, trust, danger)? Teenagers (rebellion, heartbreak, independence, emotional development)?

Other specific differences in the WISC

Improvements to measures to reflect new neurological models of cognitive functioning: fluid reasoning, perceptual reasoning index, working memory, processing speed. Integrated version that allows some multiple-choice testing of children to see what they know but cannot express. WISC is reliable and well used.

The case study

In depth examination of one or few persons. Information from a variety of sources (testing, observation and interviewing). Can be used to study people with rare conditions, but conclusions may not generalise; findings are more speculation than scientific findings. E.g. The UP series.

Continuity and discontinuity

In what ways is development continuous (measured on one dimension, such as the height as a tree, moves up/down on the trajectory) or discontinuous (stops being something and starts being something else - caterpillar to butterfly)?

The scientific method step by step

Initial observations > formulate theory > propose hypothesis > Research to test hypothesis > research data (observations) > does the data confirm hypothesis? > Yes (keep/refine current theory), no (reject current theory)

The experimental design

Investigator manipulates some aspect of the environment to see how it affects participants. The goal is to see whether different treatments that form the independent variable have differing effects on outcome - the dependent variable. Can establish unambiguity that one thing causes another, but lab settings differ from the real world, and ethical considerations restrict what is possible. E.g. effect of video games on children's prosocial behaviour

WISC IV 2003 - more versatile

Items showing cultural, SES or regional bias were eliminated or reworded. Updating of norms to account for population changes in IQ/ Updated items and items were more age appropriate. Simplified instructions and teaching efforts.

Variations in heritability according to environmental circumstances

Large variations in heritability over time and place. "the mediating mechanisms remain frustratingly unclear"

Measuring intelligence

Stanford-Binet test (fluid reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, working memory - popular in the US, for ages 2 to 23), British Ability scale (verbal ability, non-verbal reasoning, spatial ability - 2-7 (3 scores that blend to one)or 6-17 (1 core score))categories, different tests, gives a 'general intelligence' score at the end), WISC

Stressors and protective factors

Stressors: homesickness, discrimination, culture shock, financial stress, disconnectedness. Protective factor: social support, both reduces the stressors and reduces the impact of them. Does that same relationship exist with socio-cultural? More stress = more socio-cultural adaptation. Social support does reduce the impact of those stressors on socio-cultural.

Child's genotype - Child's phenotype

The child's phenotypes are expressions of their genotypes. It is not one to one - there can be multiple genotypes for one phenotype etc

Selective breeding

The pea breeding. Breeding of fruits to meet our consumer needs, mating within a community/culture, eugenics, crispa? Ethical considerations

The scientific method

The process of generating ideas and testing them by making observations: preliminary observations provide ideas for a theory, theories generate specific predictions or hypotheses, research studies are designed to test the hypotheses.

Heritability

The proportion of variability in the population that is attributable to hereditary influence. (direct and indirect) Genetic variation divided by total (genetic and environmental) variation. E.g. 4 possible types, 4 types + 1 environment variation. 4/5. 30 min mark explanation of this

Developmental psych is...

The study of how we change, and how we stay the same over time. Systematic changes and continuities in physical development (brain growth, change in motor abilities), cognitive development (learning, memory, language, perception, problem solving) and psychosocial development (person and interpersonal experiences)

The question of genetics vs environment

The way the question is framed is important. Does developmental diversity occur due to: differences in our environment and upbringing/genetic factors beyond our control/a combination of both. If both: how? How much?

Epigenetics effects of environments on genes

how the functional effects of gene expression can be influenced by the environment. E.g. rat grooming by mother affects their cortisol releasing

Self-reports

interviews, personality scales etc. Can be administered to a large group but limited to certain groups based on ability (to read, old enough etc), participant may alter their results. E.g. psychological distress scale

Larry P vs Riles

legal case between 6 families and the state of California. Children who were labelled cognitively impaired or mentally retarded who did poorly on the WISC. Test items are on Euro-American culture. Minority children did poorly. People knew this was happening, but didn't have the research to back it up. Families won, but the outcome was that no IQ tests were to be given to African American children in the state of California - not a satisfying outcome. Larry P was moved into a class with cognitive impairments - by 8th grade his reading was at 3rd grade level, he was not provided with support, his learning did not progress. 'Half day' program, working at the local grocery store for 4 hours each day, without pay. Involved in serious work-place injury, missed out on workers compensation because he couldn't read the letter offering it.

Development results from...

the close and continual interplay of genes and experience. 3 elements: Genotype (genetic material one person inherits. Phenotype: the observable expression of the genotype (temperament). Environment: all other aspects other than the genetic material itself.

Next problem with the WISC

the number being presented as unchanging and correlated to success - sends a message that people with lower scores will likely not succeed. Sets up an assumption for an entire life based on one test.

Young adulthood...

the time of laying the foundations for the rest of one's life. The first time a person has responsibility for their own health, finances, romance, living situation. 'High' wellbeing will see this as an opportunity to thrive. 'Low' wellbeing sees these decision points as threats.

Data collection

three methods: self-reports, behavioural observations, psychological measurements. The 'best' method varies depending on the sample, context, question, and aspect of development being studied