Development of Child and Youth

theories of development

- literary sources from multiple cultures indicate a strong and abiding interest in development and developmental processes - naive theories/folk knowledge - rise of scientific analysis of development

clinical method STRENGTHS

- present a structured task or stimulus, invite a response; follow with questions to clarify - flexible approach - treat each as individual

clinical method WEAKNESSES

- responses may not be comparable - interpretation of responses may be subjective

chronology of development can be described as occurring in several stages:

1. prenatal period (conception to birth) 2. infancy (birth to 18 months old) 3. toddlerhood (18 months old to 3 years old) 4. preschool period (3 to 5 years of age) 5. middle childhood (5 to 12 or so years of age until the onset of puberty) 6. adolescence - girls experience earlier than boys (12 or so to 20 years of age (many developments define the end of adolescence as the point at which the individual begins to work and is reasonably independent of parental sanctions)) 7. young adulthood (20 to 40 years of age) 8. middle age (40 to 65 years of age) 9. old age (65 years of age of older)

detecting relationships in the data: the correlational, experimental and quasi-experimental methods

3 forms of design: CORRELATIONAL: researcher examines nature of relationships in unmanipulated variables EXPERIMENTAL: researcher changes nature of one or more variables and examines the effect of the change on another variable QUASI EXPERIMENTAL: researcher examines both correlational and experimental variables in the same design

Development is:

A CONTINUAL AND CUMULATIVE process: - change at any point in development has an impact on future development A HOLISTIC PROCESS: - development is due to a combination of changes in physical growth, cognitive aspect of development, psychosocial aspects of development

Maturation (sources of developmental pressure)

the unfolding over time of a biological potential 2 sources: - species typical biological inheritance (nature of development as human species, girls > vagina, boys > penis) - individual biological inheritance (what have you gotten from your parents? look like parents etc.)

Normative development

typical patterns. what do we see amongst individuals (2 year olds can speak a little but not like adults)

experiment

only a study in which the researcher manipulates at least one variable is an experiment.

Experimental design: field experiments

In field experiments, a researcher manipulates a variable in the environment and looks for its effect on behavior. example: an advertizing campaign is presented in one city and buying patterns of those viewing the campaign and compared to buying patterns of people in other cities. Effect of IV can be highly variable: it may be stronger or weaker in this type of experiment.

Goals of developmental psycholgists

TO DESCRIBE: based on observations - Normative development - Ideographic development TO EXPLAIN: address the why of development; often requires experimentation TO OPTIMIZE: to help development move in positive directions: intervention directed towards improvement. best developmental outcome for children (goal).

Experimental design: Quasi-Experiments

The quasi-experiment uses naturally occurring events, characteristics, or experiences as grouping variables although they are not true independent variables because the participants cannot be assigned to the groups randomly. example: the response of people who experience an earthquake vs. those who only read about it vs. those who dont know it happened studies using grouping variables that the experimenter cannot control or assign (like age, sex, race of ethnicity, personality characteristic, type of experience) are quasi-experimental not true experiments. quasi-experiments cannot demonstrate true causality developmental experiments are quasi-experiments as the researcher cannot assign children to be a particular age.

case study

a detailed description of a single individual or group of individuals - strength: depth of information - limitations: difficult to compare individuals, sample is limited so results may not generalise

Age as a variable in research

because developmentalists are interested in age-related changes and continuities, age is an important variable in developmental research. 3 principal techniques: - cross-sectional design - longitudinal design - sequential or cohort-sequential design

plasticity

capacity for change in response to experience

limitations of the correlational design (LIMITATIONS)

correlations do not indicate causality causal direction of relationship is unknown and unknowable: A could cause B or B could cause A Relationship could be due to a third (or fourth) unmeasured variable and not the ones being studied

cultural/historical context

culture & history provide a context in which development occurs culture & history may influence factors the inhibit of facilitate development - historical and cultural beliefs about positive childrearing outcomes - historical and cultural beliefs about nutrition or education

scientific method

empirical - based in collection & analysis of information objective - anyone examining the information will reach the same conclusion replicable - anyone using the same methods for data collection will get the same results and draw the same conclusions publicly shared - researcher shares results with others who can critique and replicate results

limitations of the correlational design (BENEFITS)

existence of correlation may lead to more definitive research it may only be possible to study some variables correlationally

Experience or learning (sources of developmental pressure)

experiences produce relatively permanent changes

development

focus of the field of developmental psychology there are many commonalities defined as SYSTEMATIC CHANGE AND CONTINUITIES (predictable) (^opposites) that are: - Orderly - exhibit stability

ethnography

gather data by living in a culture or community for an extended period of time

quasi-experimental

if a grouping variable is employed with a manipulated variable

correlational study

if no variable is manipulated

longitudinal designs

in longitudinal designs, the same people are assessed at different ages. design can assess both continuity and change within individuals and can establish normative trends BUT, it is costly & time-consuming. there may be practice effects that influence performance. Selective Attrition or Subject Mortality- participants may drop out over time, reducing the number in the study. Is especially problemmatic if reason for attrition is related to study variables. cohort effects are not eliminated.

interviews

individual approach, lots of depth - structured interviews ask same questions of all respondents - unstructured interviews ask broad questions and ask for clarification of responses - self reporting biases - time consuming for fewer participants - time consuming analysis

Ideographic development

individual patterns. development amongst individuals. rate varies from person to person. (all children crawl before they walk)

questionnaires

lots of data, little depth - self administered, thus large amounts of data can be gathered - self reporting bias - requires literacy - have you asked the "right" questions? - data are easily analysed but lack specificity

basic assumptions in measurement

measures can be made in variety of forms: observations, self-reports, experiments, questionnaires, diaries, etc. BUT all measures should show to two characteristics: - measures should be RELIABLE: the measurement should be consistent across time and across individuals doing the measurement - measures should be VALID: the measurement should measure what it is supposed to measure

structured observations

occur in an artificial environment more control, less realistic benefits - all participants observed in same environment - low frequency behaviors can be elicited - observation may be masked deficits - may not represent real-life - anxiety or strangeness may influence behaviour

naturalistic observations

occur in naturally occurring environment less control, more realistic benefits: - behavior is "real-life" - easily applied deficits: - complex, uncontrollable environment - low-frequency behaviors may not occur - presence of observer may alter behavior - difficult to isolate cases and consequences

theory

organized set of concepts and propositions that describe and explain some aspects of behaviour - should generate hypotheses - may be macro theory (all types of behavior) or micro theory (restricted type of behavior) - occam's razor: observable are preferred to non-observables; simpler explanations are often better

cross cultural designs

participants from different cultures are assessed and compared OR people within the same (but previously unassessed) culture are assessed. allows researchers to identify cultural factors that influence development reduces the danger of over-generalizing findings this is a quasi-experimental design (researcher cannot assign participants to different cultures)

cross-sectional designs

people of different ages are studied at the same point in time; each person is assessed once people of the same age are called a COHORT. cohorts share experiences and characteristics in addition to age allows researcher to compare people of different ages research is relatively inexpensive as there is no need to keep track of participants over time BUT people born at different times are from different cohorts. cohort and age are cofounded variables. Age differences may be cohort effects not developmental change because each person is assessed only once, no data are available on individual development. Thus, we cannot assess change or continuity, merely age differences. nonetheless, cross-sectional research represents the vast majority (over 75%) of developmental research

Experimental design

problem with correlational designs is that confounding variables may exist that influence one or more DVs experimental designs minimize confounds by randomly assigning participants to groups experiencing different levels of the independent variable (IV). An experiment may have more than one IV. Experiments often use control groups as basis for comparisons often we use operationally defined variables in research (for example, aggression defined as hitting a punching bag rather than a person). ONLY EXPERIMENTS CAN DEMONSTRATE CAUSAL RELATIONSHIPS

psychophysiological methods

psychophysiological measurement examine relationship between physiological responses and behaviour - heart rate decreases when new or novel stimuli presented; assumed to be linked to interest or attention. changes in blood pressure may indicate emotional responses - EEGs/ERPs: brain wave patterns show arousal states - hormone levels (e.g. oxytocin levels predicting attachment) some physiological measures may be contaminated by means of measuring (e.g. increased anxiety due to equipment) interpretation is problematic

sequential (cohort-sequential) designs

sequential (or cohort-sequential) designs combine longitudinal and cross sectional designs. people of different cohorts (ages) are assessed over time. strengths: -can analyze for cohort effects -more efficient than longitudinal design: takes less time & less subject attrition -allows researcher to observe individual continuity and change

hypotheses

specific predictions about relationships among variables - must be testable & falsifiable

developmental psychology

subfield within the broader field of psychology begin development at conception (first born till die) and continue to develop throughout our lives

microgenetic design

use the microgenetic design to examine processes that promote developmental change -expose children ready for a developmental change to experiences thought to promote that change -monitor behavior as it changes limitations: -time consuming to track large numbers of children in a detailed fashion -repeated assessments may influence the outcomes being studied

correlational research

used with naturally occurring phenomena or variables (such as age, sex, race) that the researcher cannot manipulate or change correlation coefficient (abbreviated as r) used to indicate strength & direction of relationship; can range from -1.0 + 1.0 value indicates strength of relationship; sign indicates direction positive correlation: high scores associated with high scores and low scores with low scores negative correlation: high scores on one variable associated with low scores on the other zero or non-significant correlation: no relationship demonstrated statistically between the variables

independent variables

variables we manipulate in research ex. is teaching method A better than method B for teaching students to read? Teaching method (A vs. B) is the IV. ("Reading skills" at the end of the study will be the DV.)

dependent variables

variables we measure in research ex. how does alcohol consumption affect driving abilities? Driving abilities would be the DV