Chapter 1: History, Theory and Research Strategies

ethnography

a descriptive, qualitative technique directed toward understanding a culture or a distinct social group through participant observation; strength = more complete descriptions, weakness = may be biased, and not generalizable to other groups

Ivan Pavlov

classically conditioned dogs; neutral stimulus becomes associated with another stimulus which produces a reflexive response = not creating a new behavior, but creating new associations

sequential design

conduct several cross-sectional or longitudinal studies; strengths = reveals cohort effects, permits tracking of age-related changes; weaknesses = same problems as longitudinal and cross-sectional, but the design itself helps identify difficulties; costly

superego

conscience, according to Freud; develops between ages 3-6 as parents insist children conform to values of society

behavior modification

consists of procedures that combine conditioning and modeling to eliminate undesirable behaviors and increase desirable responses

nonnormative influences

events that are irregular and happen to just one person or a few people and don't follow a predictable timetable; they enhance the multidirectionality of development

age-graded influences

events that are strongly related to age and therefore fairly predictable in when they occur and how long they last; ex. walking around 1st birthday, hit puberty around 12-14; includes biology and social customs (ex. starting school at 6, driver's license at 16)

history-graded influences

explain why people born around the same time tend to be alike in ways that set them apart from people born at other times

ego

rational part of personality, according to Freud; emerges in early infancy to redirect id's impulses and discharge them in an acceptable way; after superego develops, must reconcile demands of id, external world, and conscience

correlational design

researchers gather info on individuals, generally in natural life circumstances, without altering their experiences, then look at relationships between participants' characteristics and their behavior or development; strength = permits study of relationships between variables, weakness = no inferences about cause/effect relationship

clinical interview

researchers use a flexible, conversational style to probe for the participant's point of view; strengths = comes as close as possible to the way participants think in everyday life; great breadth and depth of info can be obtained in a short time; weaknesses = may not be accurately reported info; hard to compare individuals' responses

experimental design

researchers use an evenhanded procedure to assign people to two or more treatment conditions; manipulate independent variable to measure dependent variable; can be conducted in the lab or in a natural environment

information processing perspective

says the human mind can be viewed as a symbol-manipulating system through which info flows; presented to senses as input, emerges as a behavioral response at output; says development is continuous, one course, nature and nurture

mesosystem

second level in ecological system theory, encompasses connections between microsystems; ex. classroom plus parental involvement (two people in microsystem talking about the individual)

evolutionary developmental psychology

seeks to understand the adaptive value of species-wide cognitive, emotional and social competencies as those competencies change with age; aims to understand the person-environment system throughout the lifespan; says development is continuous and discontinuous, one course, both nature and nurture

social learning theory

several types of this emerged, such as Albert Bandura's theory, which emphasizes modeling as a powerful source of development; motivated by history of reinforcement/punishment, promise of future reward/punishment, or vicarious reward/punishment; children thought to become more selective in what they imitate

dynamic system

some see development as __ __, as a perpetually ongoing process, extending from conceptions to death, that is molded by a complex network of biological, psychological and social influences

mental testing movement

started with Alfred Binet, who took a normative approach to child development and created the first successful intelligence test to identify Paris schoolchildren with learning problems

chronosystem

temporal dimension of ecological system theory; life changes can be imposed externally or can arise from within the person; can be individual (ex. timing of parents' divorce) or more widespread (ex. Great Depression)

resilience

the ability to adapt effectively in the face of threats to development; affected by both genetics and environment; affected by personal characteristics (genetic, temperament), presence/absence of a warm parental relationship, social support outside the immediate family, and access to community resources and opportunities

contexts

unique combinations of personal and environmental circumstances that can result in different paths of change

ecological systems theory

views the person as developing within a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels of the surrounding environment; biology plus environment; doesn't say whether development is continuous or discontinuous, many possible courses, both nature and nurture

three issues in developmental psychology

1. Is the course of development continuous or discontinuous?; 2. Does one course of development characterize all people, or are there many possible courses?; 3. What are the roles of genetic and environmental factors (nature and nurture) in development?

stages of psychosexual development

1. oral (birth-1), 2. anal (1-3), 3. phallic (3-6), 4. latency (6-11), 5. genital (adolescence)

Piaget's stages of cognitive development

1. sensorimotor stage (birth-2); use senses to explore the world 2. preoperational stage (2-7); use symbols, develop language; no logic yet 3. concrete operational (7-11); logical reasoning about concrete, directly perceivable info; organize objects into hierarchies 4. formal operational (11+); capacity for abstract, systematic thinking develops

stages of psychosocial development

1. trust vs mistrust (birth-1) 2. autonomy vs shame/doubt (1-3) 3. initiative vs guilt (3-6) 4. industry vs inferiority (6-11) 5. identity vs role confusion (adolescence) 6. intimacy vs isolation (early adulthood) 7. generativity vs stagnation (middle adulthood) 8. integrity vs despair (old age)

lifespan perspective

a dynamic systems approach with four assumptions about development: it is 1) lifelong, 2) multidimensional, 3) highly plastic, and 4) affected by multiple, interacting forces; says development is both continuous and discontinuous with many possible courses, emphasis on nature and nurture (early and late experiences matter)

developmental science

a field of study devoted to understanding constancy and change throughout the lifespan

cohort

a group of people born around the same time; tend to be similar in some ways in response to world events (including the economy, political and cultural atmosphere, etc.)

critical period

a limited time span during which the individual is biologically prepared to acquire certain adaptive behaviors but needs the support of an appropriately stimulating environment

naturalistic observation

a method where researchers go into the field, or the natural environment, and record the behavior of interest; strength = reflects participants' everyday lives; weakness = can't control conditions under which participants are observed

structured observation

a method where the investigator sets up a lab situation that evokes the behavior of interest so that every participant has equal opportunity to display the response (= strength); weakness = may not yield typical behavior

correlation coefficient

a number that describes how two measures or variables are associated with each other; -/+ = direction, 0-1 = strength

discontinuous development

a process in which new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times; development takes place in stages; assumes change is sudden; qualitative change (ex. how we interpret the world)

continuous development

a process of gradually augmenting the same types of skills that were there to begin with; is quantitative change; ex. our knowledge

John Watson

applied classical conditioning to children (ex. Little Albert study - learned to fear rat, bunny, etc.)

sensitive period

a time that is optimal for certain capacities to emerge and in which the individual is especially responsive to environmental influences; boundaries are less well-defined than critical period; development can occur later but is harder to induce; applies better to human development than stricter idea of critical period

psychoanalytic perspective

according to this perspective, people move through a series of stages in which they confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectations; founded by Sigmund Freud and continued by Erik Erikson; says development is discontinuous, has one course, both nature and nurture (innate impulses plus early experiences); first to stress influence of early parent-child relationship on development; overemphasizes influence of sexual feelings in development

behaviorism

according to this, directly observable events (stimuli and responses) are the appropriate focus of study; major contributors = John Watson, Ivan Pavlov, BF Skinner; says development is continuous, has many courses, and emphasis on nurture

case study method

aka clinical method; brings together a wide range of info on one person including interviews, observations, and test scores

informed consent

all participants, including children and the elderly, have the right to have explained to them, in language appropriate to their level of understanding, all aspects of the research that may affect their willingness to participate. When children are participants, informed consent of parents as well as of others who act on the child's behalf (ex. School officials) should be obtained, preferably in writing. Older adults who are cognitively impaired should be asked to appoint a surrogate decision maker. If they cannot do so, then someone should be named by an institutional review board (IRB) after careful consultation with relatives and professionals who know the person well. All participants have the right to discontinue participation in the research at any time.

normative approach

an approach in which measures of behavior are taken on large numbers of individuals, and age-related averages are computed to represent typical development; G Stanley Hall and Arnold Gesell were the first to use this approach

debriefing

an investigator provides a full account and justification of the activities; occurs after the research is over

theory

an orderly integrated set of statements that describes, explains, and predicts behavior; depend upon scientific verification and give meaning to observations

nature-nurture controversy

asks whether genetic or environmental factors are more important; hereditary info received from parents at conception vs forces of the physical and social world that influence our makeup and experiences; experts now agree there is an interaction (not either/or)

practice effect

better test-taking skills and increased familiarity with the test causes performance to improve (instead of it just being caused by factors associated with development)

adaptation

biologically, this says structures of the body are adapted to fit with the environment and structures of the mind develop to better represent the external world

developmental cognitive neuroscience

brings together researchers from psychology, biology, neuroscience, and medicine to study the relationship between changes in the brain and the developing person's cognitive processing and behavior patterns

exosystem

consists of social settings that do not contain the developing person but nevertheless affect experience in immediate settings (part of ecological systems theory); ex. extended family, community health services, workplace board of directors, etc.

psychosocial theory

developed by Erikson; in addition to mediating between id impulses and superego demands, the ego makes a positive contribution to development by acquiring attitudes and skills that make the individual an active, contributing member to society; strengths = emphasis on individual's unique life history; weaknesses = too strongly committed to in-depth study of individuals, and vague ideas that are impossible to test empirically

psychosexual theory

developed by Freud, emphasized that the way that parents manage their child's sexual and aggressive drives in the first few years is crucial for healthy personality development

cognitive development theory

developed by Piaget; says that children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore the world; focuses on the biological concept of adaptation; qualitative differences; children revise incorrect ideas in order to achieve an equilibrium between internal structures and info they encounter; sees development as discontinuous, one course, both nature and nurture

sociocultural theory

developed by Vygotsky; focuses on how culture is transmitted to the next generation; said social interaction (especially cooperative dialogues with more knowledgeable members of society) is necessary for children to acquire the ways of thinking and behaving that make up a community's culture; says development is continuous and discontinuous, many possible courses, both nature and nurture

B F Skinner

developed operant conditioning theory; frequency of a behavior can be increased by following it with reinforcers and decreased through punishment

structured interviews

each participant is asked the same set of questions in the same way; strengths = permits comparison; weaknesses = less depth than clinical interview, and could still be reported inaccurately

cross-sectional design

groups of people differing in age are studied one time at the same point in time; strengths = more efficient than longitudinal; not plagued by participant dropout or practice effects; weaknesses = doesn't permit study of individual development trends; age differences may be distorted because of cohort effects

beneficial treatments

if experimental treatments believed to be beneficial are under investigation, participants in control groups have the right to alternative beneficial treatment if they are available

cohort effects

individuals born in the same time period are influenced by a particular set of historical and cultural conditions; results based on one cohort may not apply to people developing at other times

ethology

is concerned with the adaptive, or survival, value of behavior and its evolutionary history; roots = Darwin; modern foundation = Konrad Lorenz (imprinting) and Niko Tinbergen; development is continuous and discontinuous, one course, and both nature and nurture; idea of critical and sensitive periods

id

largest portion of the mind; source of biological needs and desires, according to Freud

macrosystem

part of ecological systems theory, consists of cultural values, laws, customs, and resources; ex. gov't pension plan affects well-being of older people, laws about workplace benefits affect parents which in turn affects the children

longitudinal design

participants are studied repeatedly and changes are noted as they get older; strength = permits study of common patterns and individual differences in development and relationships between early and later events and behaviors; weaknesses = age-related changes may be distorted because of participant dropout, practice effects, and cohort effects

knowledge of results

participants have the right to be informed of the results of research in language that is appropriate to their level of understanding

protection from harm

participants have the right to be protected from physical or psychological harm in research. If in doubt about the harmful effects of research, investigators should seek the opinions of others. When harm seems possible, investigators should find other means for obtaining the desired info or abandon the research

privacy

participants have the right to concealment of their identity on all info collected in the course of research. They also have this right with respect to written reports and any informal discussions about the research.

stages

qualitative changes in thinking, feeling, and behaving that characterize specific periods of development; each new step corresponds to a more mature and reorganized way of functioning; part of the idea that development is discontinuous

stability

the idea that individuals who are high or low in a characteristic will remain so at later ages; tends to go along with emphasis on heredity (and possibly early experiences)

plasticity

the idea that we are open to changes in development in response to influential experiences

microsystem

the innermost level of the environment according to ecological systems theory; consists of activities and interaction patterns in the person's immediate surroundings; focus on bidirectional relationships; ex. immediate family, school, neighborhood; third parties affect two-person relationships (ex. mother/father relationship affects parent/child relationships)

dependent variable

the variable that the investigator expects to be influenced by the other variable; the one they measure

independent variable

the variable that the investigator expects to cause changes in another variable; the one they manipulate

Charles Darwin

theory of evolution (natural selection and survival of the fittest); also prompted observation of the behavior of children (thought to be similar to those of animal young)