Psych251 Review

1: Discuss historical influences on the field of developmental psychology (Q, E)

- Early philosophers views on development: Plato/Aristotle: long term welfare of society depended on the proper raising of children, if children weren't carefully brought up they would become unruly and rebellious, self-control and discipline were most important aspects of education. Plato believed children were born with innate knowledge. Aristotle believed that all knowledge comes from experience and the mind of an infant is like a blank slate. John Locke/Jean-Jacques Rousseau: focused on how parents and society can best promote childrens' development. Locke viewed children as a "tabula rasa" (a blank slate) whose development largely reflects the nurture provided by the child's parents and the broader society, believed the most important goal is growth of character developed by care-givers setting good examples of honesty/stability/gentleness without spoiling. Rousseau believed parents/society should give children maximum freedom from the beginning as they learn primarily from their own spontaneous interactions with objects and other people rather than through instruction by others, they should not receive formal education until age of reason (12). Social Reform Movements: developed to improve children's lives by changing the conditions in which they lived. Looked at how child labour/slavery impacted children. Darwin's Theory of Evolution: Darwin documented the day to day developments of his infant son in a "baby biography" and influenced a number of theories including infant's attachment to their mothers, innate fear of natural dangers such as spiders/snakes, sex differences, aggression vs altruism, and the mechanisms underlying learning. Beginning of Research Based Themes: Freud's psychoanalytic theory proposed that biological drives, especially the rewards and punishments that follow childrens actions (based on patient's recollection on dreams/childhood experiences). Research methods used were considered "crude".

4: Distinguish the differences between language and communication. (Q, E)

- Language: Acquiring a language involves learning the complex system of phonology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics that govern its sounds, meaning, grammar, and use.

2o: Other

- Phylogenetic continuity idea that because of our common ancestry, humans share many characteristics and developmental processes with other living things (ex. use mice to test the results of drinking alcohol while pregnant). - fetuses experience sensory information in the womb, are aroused by the sound of their mothers' voice (they learn in the womb as well, evident by small/taste preferences and being able to identify their mothers voice) - SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome): the sudden, unexpected, and unexplained death of an infant under 1yo. Most commonly put down for the night and found dead in the morning. More common in indigenous & low income babies. Causes are unknown, theorized about reflexes (inability to move away from something blocking breathing). Steps to avoid SIDS: sleep babies on their backs, do not smoke (around baby), sleep babies on firm matresses with no pillows or baby bumpers, babies should not be wrapped in lots of clothing or blankets, breastfed babies are less likely to succumb to SIDs Patterns of Inheritance: - Dominant-Recessive: only occurs when an individual has two recessive alleles for the disorder (ex. Tay Sachs, sickle cell) - Polygenic Inheritance: interactions among multiple inherited genes in conjugation with environmental factors (ex. schizophrenia) - Sex-Linked Inheritance: Some conditions are carried on the X chromosome and much more common in males as a result (females have to receive it on both Xs). (ex. baldness, color blindness, hemophilia). - Chromosomal Anomalies: Errors in germ-cell division which result in a zygote with more or less than normal chromosomes. (ex. Downs Syndrome) - Gene Anomalies: extra, missing, abnormal genes. (ex, Williams Syndrome) - Regulator Gene Defects: Defects in regular chain of events due to non-regulation (ex. males develop female genitalia) - Unidentified Genetic Basis: specific genetic cause has yet to be identified (ex. Dyslexia, Tourettes) - Behaviour Genetics: concerned with how variation in behaviour and development results from the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. Why do people differ from one another? Behaviour geneticists believe all behaviour traits are heritable and influenced to some degree by hereditary factors. (ex. intelligences, agression, sociability, etc are polygenic and impacted by the combination of many genes, as well as multifactorial in that they are affected by a host of environmental factors as well as genetic ones). Two premises: - individuals who are genotypically similar should be phenotypically similar. "behaviour patterns should run in families" - Individuals who were reared together should be more similar than people who were reared apart. - Heritability: statistical estimate of how much of the measure variance on a trait among individuals in a given population is attributable to genetic differences among those individuals. Not about individuals but populations of people living in a particular/similar environment. High heritability does not imply immutability. The fact that a trait is highly heritable does not mean that there isnt a point in trying to improve the course of development related to that trait. Ex. Iq - does not mean the intellectual performance of kids living in poverty cannot be improved by appropriate intervention efforts.

3: Apply these theories to your own field. (P)

- Piaget: helps with how children should be educated based on age, shows children learn best by interaction with the environment - Information-processing: determined with snakes and ladders that playing this number board game improves preschoolers' numerical knowledge. - Sociocultural: . The emphasis of sociocultural theories on the role of culture in learning implies that one way to improve schooling is to change the culture of schools. The culture should be one in which instruction is aimed at helping children gain deep understanding, in which learning is a cooperative activity, and in which learning a little makes children want to learn more. - Dynamic-systems theory: premature babies cannot reach and experience developmental difficulties. This theory proposed sticky-mittens, promoted earlier grabbing in premie infants.

3: Describe the major tenets of Piagetian, Information-Processing, Sociocultural, and Dynamic Systems Theories (Q, E, LL)

- Piagetian (continuity/discontinuity): According to Piaget's theory, removing an object from a young infant's sight should lead the infant to act as if the object never existed. Piaget's fundamental assumption about children was that they are mentally active as well as physically active from the moment of birth, and that their activity greatly contributes to their own development. Constructivist approach: depicts children as constructing knowledge for themselves from their own experiences (process: generate hypotheses, perform experiments, draw conclusions from observations). Dominant metaphor: child as a scientist. Second basic assumption: children learn many important lessns on their own, rather than depending on instruction from adults or older children. Third assumption: children are intrinsically motivated to learn and do not need rewards from other people to do so, when they acquire a new capability, they apply it as often as possible and reflect on the lessons of their experience because they want to understand themselves and everything around them. Nature & Nurture: believed they interacted to produce cognitive development. Nurture doesn't only include nurture from parents and care-givers but every experience the children encounter. Nature includes the maturing brain/body, ability to perceive/act/learn from experience, tendency to integrate particular observations into coherent knowledge.. Vital part of nature is responding to nurture. Depicted development as involving as involving both continuities and discontinuities. Continuities come in three processes: Assimilation: incorporating incoming info into concepts they already understand. Accommodation: improving current understanding in response to new experiences. Equilibration: balancing assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding. (Three phases: equilibrium where children are satisfied with their understanding of a particular phenomenon b/c they don't see any discrepancies between their observations and their understanding of the phenomenon, disequilibrium where new info leads them to perceive their understanding as inadequate as they recognize shortcomings in their understanding of the phenomenon but they cannot generate a superior alternative. Lastly, a more sophisticated understanding is developed that eliminates the shortcomings of the old one, creating a more stable equilibrium with a broader range of observations to be understood. Discontinuities depicted as stages of development which represent a discontinuous intellectual leap from one coherent way of understanding the world to the next/higher one. Central properties include: 1. Qualitative change: children of different ages think in qualitatively different ways. (ex. younger children see morality in terms of consequences vs older children in terms of intent. A 5 year old would judge someone who accidentally broke the whole jar of cookies as more naughty than someone stealing one. 8 year olds would see the opposite). 2. Broad applicability: type of thinking characteristic of each stage influencing children's thinking across diverse topics and contexts. 3. Brief transitions: period before entering a new stage where children fluctuate between the type of thinking characteristic of the new/more advanced stage and type of thinking characteristic of the old/less advanced one. 4. Invariant Sequence: everyone progresses through the stages in the same order without skipping any of them. Stages of Cognitive development (each stage new abilities are exhibited that allow them to understand the world in qualitatively different ways than previously): 1. Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2yos. Intelligence is expressed through sensory and motor abilities which are used to perceive and explore the world around them, learn about objects/people/construct concepts about time/space/causality. Phase is lived largely in the here and now, intelligence bbound to immediate perceptions and actions. Major changes: sensorimotor intelligence develops tremendously, tripling of brain weight, increased cognitive abilities, "children's thinking grows especially rapidly in the first few years", modification of reflexes for adaptive purposes, organize and combine reflexes allowing for more complex behaviours, repetition of actions on the environment that produce pleasurable results, infants object permanence becomes more developed by the end of the first year (a-not-b error: tendency to reach for a hidden object where it was last found rather than in the new location where it was last seen hidden), child as a scientist emerges as they actively explore different ways objects can be used, the last half year infants become able to form enduring mental representations and deferred imitation becomes prevalent (abilities to repeat people's behaviours minutes/hours/days after they occurred). Trends evident in Piaget's account of cognitive development during infancy: - at first infants activities centre on their own bodies, later their activities include the world around them - early goals are concrete, later goals are more abstract - Infants become increasingly able to form mental representations, moving from out of sight out of mind to remembering actions for later use. 2. Preoperational stage: 2yo to 7yos. Ability to represent their experiences in language and mental imagery emerges allowing experiences to be remembered for longer periods and formation of more sophisticated concepts. Emphasizes young children's inability to perform certain mental operations (ex. considering multiple dimensions simultaneously). Leads to the inability to form certain ideas (container shape vs volume). Development of symbolic representations; among the most notable weaknesses are egocentrism and centration. Symbolic representations: the use of one object to stand for another (ex. popsicle stick as a hammer). Egocentrism: perceiving the world solely from one's own point of view (ex. talking over each other, not being able to recognize what the view for others would be like), ego speech (assume people know what they're talking about, talk over each other, etc). Centration: focusing on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event to the exclusion of other relevant but less striking features (ex. conservatin of liquid in diff containers, arrangement of objects doesnt necessarily change quantity). 3. Concrete operational stage: 7yos to 12 yos. Can reason logically about concrete objects and events (ex. container shape vs volume). But, cannot think in purely abstract terms or generate systematic scientifiec experiments to test beliefs. Problems that require attention to multiple dimensions can be solved, but limited to concrete situations. Systematic thinking remains very difficult, as doess hypothetical reasoning. Experiments are built from which no valid conclusion can be drawn as there is still an inability to imagine all possible combinations of variables. 4. Formal operational stage: 12+ yos. children can think deeply not only about concrete events but also abstractions and hypothetical situations. Can perform systematic scientific experiments and draw appropriate conclusions from them, even when conclusions differ from former beliefs. Unlike the previous stages, not all adolescents or adults will reach this stage. Allows for thoughts about infinite realities and to think about alternative ways that the world could be and to ponder deep questions concerning truth, justice, and morality. - Information-Processing: a class of theories that focus on the structure of the cognitive system and the mental activities used to deploy attention and memory to solve problems. Task analysis: identification of goals, the obstacles that prevent their immediate realization, the prior knowledge and information in the environment relevant to them, and the potential processing strategies for overcoming the obstacles and attaining the goals. (ex. a single simple behaviour, such as the initial request of Klahr's daughter that he open the basement door, reflects an extended sequence of rapid mental operations. " unlock the door. why? I want to ride my bike, my socks are in the dryer. Relevance? Wants to ride bike > need to get to bike > gravel hurts feet > no socks in the drawer this morning > socks are in the dryer). Info-processing theorists see children's cognitive growth as occurring continuously in small increments that occur at different times for different tasks. The child as a limited-capacity processing system: draws comparisons between information processing of computers vs humans. A computer's information processing is limited by its hardware and by its software. The hardware limitations relate to the computer's memory capacity and its efficiency in executing basic operations. The software limitations relate to the strategies and information that are available for performing particular tasks. People's thinking is limited by the same factors: memory capacity, speed of thought processes, and availability of useful strategies and knowledge The cognitive development arises from children's gradually surmounting their processing limitations through (1) expansion of the amount of information they can process at one time, (2) increases in the speed with which they execute thought processes, and (3) acquisition of new strategies and knowledge. The child as a problem solver: the assumption that children are active problem solvers. Problem solving involves goals, perceived obstacles, and strategies or rules for overcoming the obstacles and attaining the goals The development of memory: Memory plays a role in all cognitive developmental theories, but it is especially central to information-processing theories. Most such theories distinguish amongst: working memory: actively attending to, gathering, maintaining, storing, and processing information. Working memory is limited in both its capacity (the amount of information that it can store) and in the length of time it can retain information without updating activities. Basic organization seems to be constant from childhood but capacity and speed of operation increase greatly with age. " the subset of that knowledge that is being processed at a given time" long-term memory: consists of the knowledge that people accumulate over their lifetime. It includes factual knowledge (e.g., knowing the capitals of different countries or the teams that won the Stanley Cup in the past 5 years), conceptual knowledge (e.g., the concepts of justice, mercy, and equality), procedural knowledge (e.g., knowing how to tie a shoe or play a video game), attitudes (e.g., likes and dislikes regarding political parties or anchovies), reasoning strategies (e.g., knowing how to take an argument to its logical extreme to show its inadequacy), etc. "Totality of ones knowledge". It can retain an unlimited amount of information for unlimited periods. Executive functioning: involves the control of cognition using the prefrontal cortex. Three major types of executive functions are inhibiting tempting actions that would be counterproductive; enhancing working memory through use of strategies, such as repeating a phone number that would otherwise be forgotten; and being cognitively flexible, for example, taking someone else's perspective in an argument despite the fact that it differs from one's own. This integrates information from working memory and long-term memory to accomplish goals. Allows control of thinking and action—enabling the individual to respond appropriately rather than acting impulsively or doing what he or she is used to doing, etc - increases with age. The quality of executive functioning during early childhood is highly predictive of many important life outcomes years later, including academic achievement in later grades, enrolment in university, and income and occupational status during adulthood. Memory development: Theorists try to explain processes that make memory as good as it is at each age and the limitations that stop it from being better using three types of capabilities: Basic processes: associating events with one another, recognizing objects as familiar, recalling facts and procedures, and generalizing from one instance to another. Encoding—the representation in memory of specific features of objects and events. People encode information that draws their attention or that they consider relevant, but they fail to encode a great deal of other info which is not remembered later. Like improved encoding, improved speed of processing (inc with age) plays a key role in the development of memory and learning. Two biological processes that contribute to faster processing are myelination and increased connectivity among brain regions. Myelination enhances executive function, contributing to the ability to resist distractions & Greater connectivity among brain regions also increases processing capacity and speed by increasing the efficiency of communication among brain areas. Strategies: the acquisition and growth of strategies as another major source of the development of memory. children begin to use a number of broadly useful memory strategies, among them the strategy of rehearsal, the repeating of information multiple times in order to remember it/selective attention, the process of intentionally focusing on the information that is most relevant to the current goal) Content Knowledge: when children know more about a topic than adults do, their memory for new information about the topic is often superior to the adults' memory. Prior content knowledge improves memory for new information in several different ways. One is by improving encoding, by providing useful associations, content knowledge indicates what is and is not possible and therefore guides memory in useful directions. The Development of Problem Solving: According to overlapping-waves theory, children actually use a variety of approaches to solve problems. at any one age, children use multiple strategies; that with age and experience, they rely increasingly on more advanced strategies (the ones with the higher number of successes); and that development involves changes in use of existing strategies as well as discovery of new approaches. Children discover new strategies that are more effective than their previous ones, they learn to execute both new and old strategies more efficiently, and they choose strategies that are more appropriate to the particular situation. Another source of improvement is faster and more accurate execution of all the strategies that children know. A third source of improvement is that children choose among strategies increasingly adaptively. Planning: Problem solving is often more successful if people plan before acting. Despite the advantages of planning, however, children, and even adolescents, often fail to plan in situations in which it would help their problem solving bc it requires inhibiting the desire to solve the problem immediately in favour of first trying to construct the best strategy, they tend to be overly optimistic about their abilities and think that they can solve problems more effectively than their capabilities actually allow - Sociocultural: emphasizes that other people and the surrounding culture contribute greatly to children's development, much of cognitive development takes place through direct interactions between children and other people—parents, siblings, teachers, playmates, and so on—who want to help children acquire the skills and knowledge valued by their culture. Often exemplifies guided participation, a process in which more knowledgeable individuals organize activities in ways that allow less knowledgeable people to engage in them at a higher level than they could manage alone. Vygotsky's theory: Piaget depicted children as little scientists, trying to understand the world on their own. Vygotsky, in contrast, portrayed them as social learners, intertwined with other people who are eager to help them gain skills and understanding. viewed them as intent on participating in activities that happen to be prevalent in their local setting, emphasized continuous, quantitative changes, viewed language and thought as integrally related. At first, children's behaviour is controlled by other people's statements; then, children's behaviour is controlled by their own private speech, in which they tell themselves aloud what to do, much as their parents might have done earlier; and then, their behaviour is controlled by internalized private speech (thought), in which they silently tell themselves what to do. Children as teachers/learners: Tomasello proposed that the human species has two unique characteristics that are crucial to the ability to create complex, rapidly changing cultures. One of these is the inclination to teach others of the species; the other is the inclination to attend to and learn from such teaching. This inclination to teach and to learn from teaching is what enables children to be socialized into their culture and to pass that culture on to others. Children as a product of their culture: theorists believe that many of the processes that produce development, such as guided participation, are the same in all societies. However, the content that children learn—the particular symbol systems, artifacts, skills, and values—vary greatly from culture to culture and shape thinking accordingly. Children's memories of their own experiences also reflect their culture (ex. when asked of earliest memories: Chinese culture prizes and promotes interdependence among people, especially among close relatives. EuropeanAmerican culture, in contrast, prizes and promotes the independence of individuals. Consistent with these cultural emphases, the Chinese children's reports of their earliest memories included more references to other people than did those of American children, and the American children's reports included more references to the child's own feelings and reactions.) Central Developmental Issues: two related concepts that play prominent roles in sociocultural analyses of change: intersubjectivity and social scaffolding. Intersubjectivity: the mutual understanding that people share during communication, effective communication requires participants to focus on the same topic, and also on one another's reaction to whatever is being communicated. Requires —joint attention. In this process, infants and their social partners intentionally focus on a common referent in the external environment, emerges around first birthday and increases ability to learn from others. Helps with word learning - the adult usually looks or points directly at it; children who are looking at the same object are in a better position to learn what the word means than ones who are not. Social Scaffolding: more competent people provide a temporary framework that supports childrens thinking at a higher evel than children could manage on their own - explain goal of task/demonstrate how its done/help child with most difficult parts of the task (requires less and less support until task becomes possible without support). Important way it is used is in autobiographical memories, when discussing past experiences with young children, they may be encouraged to expand and provide my details. This helps with memory and improving encoding. - Dynamic Systems(mechanisms of change): a class of theories that focuses on how change occurs over time in complex systems. Research that reflects the dynamic-systems perspective indicates that detailed analyses of the development of infants' basic actions, such as crawling, walking, reaching, and grasping, yield surprising and impressive insights into how development occurs. This research has overturned the traditional belief that physical maturation leads infants to attain motor milestones in stages, at roughly the same age, in the same way, and in a steady progression. It has shown instead that individual children acquire skills at different ages and in different ways, and that their development entails regressions as well as progress. As suggested by the term dynamic, dynamic-systems theories depict development as a process in which change is the only constant. Whereas some approaches to cognitive development hypothesize that development entails long periods of relatively stable stages or ways of thinking separated by relatively brief transition periods, dynamic-systems theories propose that at all points in development, thought and action change from moment to moment in response to the current situation, the child's immediate past history, and the child's longer-term history of actions in related situations. As suggested by the second term in the label, dynamic-systems theories depict each child as a well-integrated system, in which many subsystems—perception, action, attention, memory, language, social interaction, and so on—work together to determine behaviour. The assumptions that development is dynamic and that it functions as an organized system are central to the theory's perspective on children's nature. . Like Piaget's theory, dynamic-systems theories emphasize children's innate motivation to explore the environment; like information-processing theories, they emphasize precise analyses of problem-solving activity; and like sociocultural theories, they emphasize the formative influence of other people. Motivators of Development: emphasize that from infancy onward, children are strongly motivated to learn about the world around them and to explore and expand their own capabilities (children persist in practising new skills even when they possess wellpractised skills that are more efficient.). emphasize infants' interest in the social world as a crucial motivator of development, emphasized that observing other people, imitating their actions, and attracting their attention are all potent motivators of development. The Centrality of Action: unique in their pervasive emphasis on how children's specific actions shape their development, emphasize that actions contribute to development throughout life. Central Development Issues: Two developmental issues that are especially prominent in dynamic-systems theories are how the cognitive system organizes itself and how it changes. -- Self organization: Dynamic-systems theories view development as a process of self-organization that involves bringing together and integrating attention, memory, emotions, and actions as needed to adapt to a continuously changing environment ( sometimes called soft assembly, because the components and their organization change from moment to moment and situation to situation, rather than being governed by rigid stages that are consistently applied across time and situations). How Change Occurs: changes occur through mechanisms of variation and selection that are analogous to those that produce biological evolution where variation refers to the use of different behaviours to pursue the same goal and Selection involves increasingly frequent choice of behaviours that are effective in meeting goals and decreasing reliance on less effective behaviours. Children's selection among alternative approaches reflects several influences. Most important is the relative success of each approach in meeting a particular goal: as children gain experience, they increasingly rely on approaches that produce desired outcomes. Another important consideration is efficiency: children increasingly choose approaches that meet goals more quickly or with less effort than do other approaches. A third consideration is novelty, the lure and challenge of trying something new. Children sometimes choose new approaches that are no more efficient, or even less efficient, than an established alternative but that have the potential to become more efficient.

3: Evaluate the major strengths and weaknesses of these theories. (Q, E, LL, P)

- Piagetian: Strength: vividly conveys texture of children's thinking at different ages, exceptional breadth of the theory (extends from the first day of infancy through adolescence), examines topics such as conceptualization of time, space, distance, and number, language use, memory, understanding of differing perspectives, problem solving, scientific reasoning. The most encompassing theory of cognitive development, offers an intuitively plausible depiction of the interaction of nature/nurture in development, and continuities/discontiuities that characterize intellectual growth. Strengths were mentioned earlier. It provides a good overview of what children's thinking is like at different points in development (Table 4.2). It includes countless fascinating observations. It offers a plausible and appealing perspective on children's nature. It surveys a remarkably broad spectrum of developments and covers the entire age span from infancy through adolescence. Weaknesses: - The stage model depicts children's thinking as being more consistent than it is: predicted that once children enter a given stage, their thinking consistently shows the characteristics of that stage across diverse concepts. Research, however, has shown that children's thinking is far more variable than this depiction suggests. Piaget recognized that such variability exists but underestimated its extent and failed to explain it. - Infants and young children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognized: concepts were often difficult tests which med him to miss infants' and young children's earliest knowledge of concepts. - Piaget's theory understates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development: theory focuses on how children come to understand the world through their own efforts, doesn't consider that they live in an environment of adults and older children who shape their cognitive development in countless ways and cognitive development is a reflection of their nurture. - Piaget's theory is vague about the cognitive processes that give rise to children's thinking and about the mechanisms that produce cognitive growth: less revealing, however, about the processes that lead children to think in a particular way and that produce changes in their thinking. Assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration have an air of plausibility, but how they operate is unclear.

1: Evaluate research methods in this field and predict what sorts of research studies would be most effectively investigated by each method (Q, E, LL)

- Scientific Method: assumption that all beliefs (no matter how probable, how many people share them, etc), may be wrong. Until tested, all beliefs are hypotheses (educated guess instead of a truth). If tested and evidence does not support it, hypothesis must be abandoned no matter how reasonable it seems. Steps: 1. Choose a question to be answered 2. Formulate a hypothesis regarding the question 3. Develop a method for testing the hypothesis 4. Use the data yielded by the method to draw a conclusion regarding the hypothesis For the scientific method to work, researchers must use measures that are directly relevant to the hypotheses being tested. Reliability: the degree of consistency of a behavior under study. (Interrater reliability - Each person rating gives a 4 or 5, test-retest reliability - when retested under 2 or more occasions similar results are received). Validity: the degree to which something measures what it is intended to measure. (Internal Validity - whether or not the effects observed can be attributed with confidence to the factor the research is tesing (ex. psychotherapy for teens experiencing depression, 3 weeks later no one is depressed. Can is be attributed to the psychotherapy or was it some other factor?). External Validity - the ability to generalize research findings beyond the particulars of the research in question. Basically the ability to generalize past one group to all children.) Gathering Data: Interviews: straight up asking questions Positives: yield data quickly in copious amounts, in-depth info on individuals. Negatives: can be very biased. Children often avoid disclosing facts that show them in a bad light, distort the way that events happened, and fail to understand their own motives. - Structured Interviews: useful when goal is to collect self reports on the same topics from everyone being studied. (ex. asking multiple children their feelings on school/learning). - Clinical Interviews: useful for obtaining in-depth information about an individual child, begins with a pre-made set of prepared questions, but if the child says something intriguing the interviewer can deviate from the script to follow the child's lead. Naturalistic Observation: method of choice for gathering data when the research goal is to describe how children behave in their usual environment (homes, schools, playgrounds, etc). Observers attempt to remain unobtrusively in the background of the setting in order to view relevant behaviours while minimizing the chances that their presence will influence the behavior. Positive: can yield detailed info from certain aspects of everyday life Negatives: Naturally occurring contexts vary on many dimensions so its hard to know which ones influenced the behavior of interest. Structured Observation: researchers design a situation that will elicit behavior that is relevant to the hypothesis and then observe how different children behave in that situation. The researcher then relates the observed behaviours to the characteristics of the child, such as age/sex/personality/etc and to the child's behavior in other situations that are also observed. Correlation & Causation: Correlational Designs: determine whether children who differ in one variable also differ in predictable ways in other variables. (ex. popularity in relation to self-control). The association between variables is known as correlation. When strongly correlated, one variable can be used to predict another. Ranges from 1.00 (strongest positive correlation) to -1.00 (strongest negative correlation). Positive when high values of one variable are associated with high values of the other/low with low, and negative when high values of one are associated with lows of the other. CORRELATION =/= CAUSATION. Direction of causation problem: a correlation does not indicate which variable is the cause and which variable is the effect Third Variable Problem: the correlation between two variables may actually be the result of some third, unspecified variable Positives: Influence of variables of great interest (age, sex, race, social class, etc) cannot be manipulated so they can't be studied experimentally. Good for describing relations among variables rather than identifying cause/effect relations. Experimental Design: Logic is if children in one group are exposed to a particular experience and subsequently behave differently from a comparable group of children who were not exposed to the experience or were exposed to a different experience, then the subsequent differences in behavior must have resulted from the differences in experience. Crucial techniques include random assignment (assigning the participants to one experimental group or another according to chance so that the groups are comparable at the outset) and experimental control (the ability of the researcher to determine the specific experiences that children in each group encounter during the study) Positives: Method of choice for establishing casual relations, a central goal of scientific research. Negatives: some things can't be randomly assigned (ex. gender in why boys tend to be more aggressive than girls) see table on pg 32 for pros and cons Cross-Sectional Designs: easiest and most common way to study changes and continuities with age. Compares children of different ages on a given behavior/ability/characteristic, with all of the children being studied at roughly the same time. Positives: useful for revealing similarities and differences between older and younger children Negatives: Do not yield information about the stability of behavior over time or about the patterns of change shown by the individual children. Longitudinal Designs: involves following a group of children over a substantial period (usually at least a year) and observing changes and continuities in these children's development at regular interval during that time. More useful for revealing stability and change over time but cross-sectionals are more common because they are more practical. Microgenetic Designs: specifically designed to provide an in-depth depiction of the processes that produce change. Recruit children that are thought to be on the verge of an important change, heighten their exposure to the experience that is believed to produce change, and then intensively study the change as it is occurring. Also repeatedly test the same children over time, but typically greater number of sessions and shorter amount of time. Positives: provide insight to the process of change over brief periods Negatives: do not yield information about stability and change over long periods. They are typically used when the basic pattern of age related change has already been established and the goal becomes to understand how the changes occur. See chapter summary

2: Discuss the general processes of brain development. (Q, E)

- Structure: Neurons: basic unit of brain's information system, specialized for sending and receiving messages between the brain and all parts of the body. Multiple types: sensory (transmit info from sensory receptors that detect stimuli in external enviro or within body itself), motor (transmit info from the brain to muscles and glands), and interneurons (act as intermediaries between sensory and motor neurons). Cell body manufactures proteins and enzymes to support cell functioning and produce neurotransmitters, myelin sheath enhances speed and efficiency of signals travelling, branches at end of axon release neurotransmitters into the synapses and conducts electrical signals away from cell body to connection with other neurons, dendrites conduct impulses towards cell body and receive input from other cells. Glial Cells: brains white matter. Form myelin sheath, play a further role in communcation by influencing the formation and strengthening of synapses, communicate biochemically among themselves in a network, regulate aspects of brain activity. The Cortex: most human part of the brain. During human evolution, the cortex has increased most significantly. FOlds & creases allow for more tight packing. Plays primary role in seeing/hearing/reading/writing/math, feeling compassion, and communicating. MAde of lobes: occipital love (visual), temporal lobbe (memory, visual recognition, speech, language, emotion, auditory), parietal lobe (spatial processing), frontl lobe (cognitive control, memory, planning, decision making, inhibitory control.) DEVELOPMENT: - 3rd/4th week of prenatal life, cells in newly formed neural tube begin rapidly dividing. Neurogenesis (proliferation of neurons through cell division) is complete around 18 weeks. Most of your neurons are preformed before birth, however, we do generate new neurons throughout life. (ex. learning, neurogenesis occurs in the hippocampus). Neurogenesis can be inhibited by stress. - After their "birth", neurons begin migration to their ultimate destination. Some are passively pushed along by newer cells forming while others actively propel themselve to their ultimate location. - Once the destination is reached, cell growth and differentiation occurs. An axon is grown then a bush of dendrites before they take on the specific structural and functional characteristics of the different structures of the brain. Axons elongate as they grow towards specific targets and branches spine out. Myelination occurs before birth and continues into early adulthood, various areas are myelinated at different rates (why there are different rates of development for various behaviours). - Synaptogenesis: each neuron forms synapses with thousands of others, resulting in the formation of the trillions of connections. - Synapse Elimination: explosive generation of neurons results in a huge surplus than needed and additional unneeded connections. About 40% of synaptic superfluity gets eliminated in synaptic pruning. Cell death is a normal processes. Pruning occurs at different times in different areas. - amount of grey matter increases rapidly around 11 or 12 then peaks around puberty before declining and being replaced by white matter. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (consequences, priorities, impulse, etc) is last to mature around 20. - Experience plays an important role in pruning (use it or lose it), dubbed as neural darwinism. The more often a synapse is activated, they are more selectively preserved. Neurons that fire together wire together. When a neuron is rarely active, it is likely to disappear. The axon of one neuron withdraws and the dendritic spine is pruned away. The capacity of the brain to be moulded or changed by experience is reffered to as plasticity, which allows for less of the need for info to be encoded in genes. - Experience-expectant plasticity: the normal wiring of the brain is in part a result of the kinds of general experiences that have been present throughout human evolution, experiences that every human with an intact sensory motor system who inhabits a reasonably normal environment will have: patterned visual stimulation, voices, and other sounds, movement, and manipulation, etc. The brain can expect input from these reliable sources to fine tune into circuitry. Synapses frequently activated with be strengthened, and others will be pruned. Pro is that fewer genes need to be dedicated to normal development and the brain can better recover from injury to areas (other areas can take over). Cons that it is accompanied by vulnerability in that if the fine tuning does not occur (inadequate stimulus or impaired receptors), development can be severely compromised (sensory experience is absent, what happens to brain that specializes normally because of that experience? Can become partially reorganized for other functions) - Sensitive periods: periods when the human brain is especially sensitive to particular kinds of stimuli, a time window temp opened inviting enviro input to help organize the brain before gradually closing. Typically irreversible. Ex. never learning to talk. - Experience Dependent Processes: neural connections are created and reorganized constantly due to experience - Brain Damage and Recovery: brain can become rewired if needed after suffering damage. Children have a better chance of recovery as immature areas can easily take over function. Not always true, depends on severity and other factors, also effects may emerge later in life despite seemingly having made a full recovery. Worst time to suffer brain injury is prenatally when basic structures are forming, best time in early childhood when synapse generation and pruning are occurring and plasticity is highest.

2: Describe the effects of genes and environment as they pertain to developmental psychology and defend the position that it is impossible to truly separate the effects of genes and environment on development. (Q, E, P)

- Three key elements for genetic factors: genotype (genetic material inherited), phenotype (observable expression of gene), and environment (every aspect of individual and their surrounding, including prenatal). Five relations in fundamental development of every child: the parents genetic contribution to genotype, the contribution of the childs genotype to their phenotype, contribution of the childs environment to their phenotype, the influence of the childs phenotype on the environment, the influence of the environment on the childs genotype. -Parent/Child genotype: transmission of genetic material, involved in formation and functioning of an organism. Several mechanisms contribute to diversity such as mutation (a change that occurs in DNA, most are harmful. Changes in germ cells are hereditary. Some can improve viability), random assortment of chromosomes (chromosomes are shuffled randomly with chance determining which pairs go into each new egg or sperm. Further variability when germ cells divide and swap DNA). -Childs genotype/phenotype: genes can "switch" on and off, determining phenotype, controlled by regulator genes. External factors can affect the switching on and off. Some genes are never expressed (dominant vs recessive genes). A given genotype will develop differently in different environments. Norm of reaction refers to all phenotypes that could theoretically result from a given genotype in relation to all of the environments it could survive and develop (ex. a child with a given genotype would develop differently in a loving home vs an abusive one). Parental influence: child of musician more likely to be exposed to music, thus more musically inclined. - Child's Phenotype/Environment: child as a source of their own development. Active creator's of their own enviro in two ways: by virtue of their nature and behaviour by actively evoking certain kinds of responses from others (ex. babies who like to be cuddled will be less squirmy in order to receive more cuddles) & by actively selecting surroundings and experiences that match their interests, talents, and personality characteristics (ex. once enfants become able to move around, they explore things that peak their interests most outside of parental encouragement/selecting friends - birds of a feather flock together). - Child's Environment/Genotype: some DNA remains fixed, while certain epigenetic mechanisms mediated by the environment can alter the functioning of genes and create stable changes in their expression. Some of these changes can be passed on to the next generation (explains why twins don't have identical paths in life despite having the same DNA). Poor maternal care affects methylation of genes. - Ex. 6 brothers made it to the big leagues in hockey. Not just nature of nurture, but both. The phenomenal athletic ability came from the genes they inherited from their parents and also the support and encouragement they received.

1: Other

- Why study: Raising Children: helps with parenting, how to control emotions, debates on spanking (makes behavior worse), etc Choosing Social Policies: make informed decisions about social policies impacting children (pass/fail at schools, sexual abuse testimonies from children, anti-smoking/drinking/drug/pregnancy campaigns) Understanding Human Nature: Learning (when does it begin), how early situations (abuse, neglect, loveless homes) impact people & can they be reversed with loving homes, development of personality. - Genome: each person's complete set of hereditary information, influences behaviours and experiences and is influenced by behaviours and experiences (DNA remains constant, but genome contains proteins which can turn gene expression "on and off"). Epigenics.

4: Describe the major components of language and identify the early language milestones. (Q, E. LL)

- phonology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics - The early years constitute a critical period for language acquisition; many aspects of language are more difficult to acquire thereafter

1: Identify the key themes in developmental psychology (Q, P, E)

-Biological & Enviromental factors combine to produce child development: children who experienced prenatal or birth complications were more likely than others to develop physical disabilities, mental illnesses, and learning disabilities. However, depending on living conditions, the severity differed (toddlers with birth problems were nearly as advanced in language as counterparts if they lived in harmonious middle class families, but not so much if they grew up in poor rearing conditions). By 18, most of those with birth problems AND poor living conditions experienced mental health problems, police records, or became teen parents aside from 1/3 who showed impressive resilience when faced with adversity who loved/worked/played well. (pg. 2).... Nature refers to our biological endowment, in particular, the genes we receive from our parents which influence every aspect of our makeup including physical appearance, personality, intellect, mental health, political attitudes, propensity for thrill seeking, etc. Nurture refers to the wide range of environments (physical and social), in which we spend the prenatal period, the homes we grew up in, the schools we attended, the broader communities we lived in, and the people with whom we interacted. All human characteristics are created through joint interactions of nature and nurture. (ex. Schizophrenia is both hereditary & genetic. Children with a schizophrenic parent have a higher chance of developing the disease even if adopted out. However, environment is STILL important as children who grew up in rougher environments & had a schizophrenic parent had even more of a likelihood of becoming schizophrenic. How Children Shape Their Own Development: - What infants pay attention to: infants prefer to look at things that move and make sounds, babies prefer to look at their mother's face (strengthens bond & promotes social interaction), children talking to themselves/when alone shows their internal motivation to learn language, self-play promotes learning, fantasy play contributes to learning about self and others (moral lessons, how to cope with fears, interact with others, turn taking, adhering to rules, controlling emotions when faced with setbacks). Continuity/Discontinuity: Some see childhood development as continuous (pine tree growing taller), while some see it as discontinuous (transition from caterpillar to butterfly). Discontinuous: common observation that children of different ages seem qualitatively different. A 4 and 6 year old are different in not only how much they know but how they think about the world. (ex. pouring water into different shape container, still same amount? 4yo: no, 6yo: yes!). Stage theory: propose development occurs in a progression of distinct age-related stages like the butterfly example. Entry into a new stage involves relatively sudden, qualitative changes that affect the child's thinking from one coherent way of experiencing the world to a different coherent way of experiencing it. Jean Piaget cognitive development theory for the development of thinking/reasoning: holds that between birth and adolescence children go through four stages of cognitive growth each characterized by intellectual abilities and ways of understanding the world. Many researchers have concluded that most developmental changes are gradual rather than sudden and development occurs skill by skill, task by task, rather than in a unified way. Same facts can look different for different people (ex. height increase/year in boys vs overall height by year). The most reasonable answer is "depends how you look at it and how often you look" (development of a child from the pov of parents who see him everyday vs uncle who hasn't seen him in 2 years. Mechanisms/How Change Occurs: -Effortful Attention: Roles of brain activity, genes, learning experiences,. Involves voluntary control of one's emotions and thoughts, includes processes such as inhibiting impulse, controlling emotion, and focusing attention. Difficulty in exerting effortful attention is associated with behavioural problems, weak math and reading skills, and mental illness. Can be influenced by genes and parenting (nature vs nurture). Sociocultural Context: Physical, cultural, economic, and historical circumstances that a child grew up in, influences every aspect of children's development. Most obvious influence is caretakers/social interactions. (ex. co-sleeping in other cultures vs north America). Individual Differences: Children are unique in appearance, activity level, temperament, intelligence, persistence, emotionality, etc. Influenced by four main factors: genetic difference, difference in treatment by parents and others, differences in reactions to similar experiences, difference choices of environment. Genes: Aside from twins, all siblings differ by at 50% of their genetics and share 50%. Treatment: often associated with pre-existing differences in characteristics (ex. more sensitive care to easy going children than difficult ones, more attention to students that learn well vs disruptive/poorly learning students). Reactions: Influences by subjective interpretation of events. Environment: as children grow older, they have more choice in environment and who they surround themselves with. Can accept or choose niches for themselves "the smart one", "the active one", "the troublemaker". May cause them to live up to these labels. Research Impacts on Childrens Well-Being Educational Innovations, intelligence as a "set point" vs being related to learning

3o: Other

Benefits of studying these theories: - Developmental theories provide a framework for understanding important phenomena: place experiences and observations in a larger context and deepen our understanding of their meaning. - Developmental theories raise crucial questions about human nature: Do infants realize things continue to exist when out of sigh? Do they understand that people continue to exist when out of sight? - Developmental theories lead to a better understanding of children: theories stimulate new research which improves our understanding of children.

2: Describe the process of conception, and identify the major processes occurring during the periods of the zygote, embryo and fetus. (Q, LL, E)

Conception: - The union of an egg from the mother and a sperm from the father Gametes: reproductive cells (egg and sperm) that contain only half the genetic information (one member from each of the 23 chromosome pairs) Meiosis: cell division that produces gametes Process: Egg is launched from ovary to fallopian tube then towards uterus, leaves a chemical substance signaling "come hither", sperm are pumped into vagina, tail propels them to move, travel for about 6 hours, only about 200 get near the egg (survival of the fittest), sperm penetrates egg. Once penetrated, a chemical reaction seals the membrane preventing others from entering. - Zygote : The fertilized egg (full complement of human genetic material, half from mum and half from dad). First major process is mitosis (cell division) where zygote divides into equal parts (each containing full genetic material), and continues multiplying then becomes implanted on uterine wall. Germinal period is from conception to 2 weeks. - Embryo: developing organism from 3rd to 8th week of development. Major development in all organs and systems of the body using cell division/cell migration/cell differentiation/cell death/hormonal influences (determine sexual differentiation). Amniotic sac (protection/temp regulation) & placenta (exchange of materials carried in blood of mum & fetus, blood doesn't actually mix but oxygen/nutrients/minerals/antibodies are exchanged & waste products removed, hormone production) are formed. 3 folded levels are formed (outside becomes NS/nails/teeth/inner ear/lens of eye/outer surface of skin, middle becomes muscle/bones/circulatory system/inner layers of skin/other internal organs, inner layer becomes the digestive system/lungs/urinary tract/glands). Neural tube develops for brain and spinal cord. - Fetus: developing organism from 9th week to birth. Continued development of physical structures and rapid growth of the body. Increasing levels of behavior, sensory experience, and learning. Cells have differentiated and specialized in terms of structure and function. Cell suicide (apoptosis) is the final step (ex. fingers losing their webs) *look at fetal week to week development

2: Recognize the effects of the prenatal environment on the developing organism, with particular attention to brain development. (Q, LL, E) 2: Apply what is known about hazards to prenatal development to discuss prevention of negative outcomes for the developing baby. (Q, LL, E)

Tetratogen: external agent that can cause damage or death during prenatal development. A crucial factor is timing in regards to severity of effects. Many tetratogens only cause damage if during a sensitive period (ex. organs most sensitive during formation). Most sensitive period is embryonic period. - Environmental agents with tetratogenic effects: poor maternal diet, air pollution, inadequate prenatal care, psychological stress. - Drugs: alcohol, birth control, narcotics (cocaine, marijuana, heroin, tobacco, etc) - Maternal Diseases: AIDS, STIs, Toxo, etc - Some people may be unaffected by things that affect individuals who have a genetic predisposition -Sleeper effect: effects of given agent may not be evident until years later Legal Drug Effects: - Cigarettes: less oxygen to fetus, cancer-causing agents are metabolized, slowed fetal growth/low birth weight, increased SIDs, lower IQ, hearing deficits, cancer. - Alcohol: easily crosses placenta into amniotic fluid which is drunken by the fetus, fetus has less ability to metabolize and remove alcohol from its blood, altered activity levels, abnormal startle reflexes, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: fetal alcohol syndrome with facial deformities, intellect disabilities, attention problems, hyperactivity. (Visual signs: small eyes width wise, smooth/thin upper lip without groove) Illegal Drugs: - Marijuana: affects memory, learning, and visual skills after birth - Cocaine: fetal growth retardation, premature birth, difficulty regulating arousal and attention, babies go through withdrawal, cognitive and social deficits Environmental Pollutants: - Lead, mercury, and polychlorinated biphenyls can be associated with later difficulties in neuromotor development (esp fine motor), lower IQ Occupational Hazards: - exhaust from vehicles, pesticides/chemicals, noise pollution, etc Maternal Factors - Age: young mothers are more likely to have babies who die before their first birthday, older mothers are at a greater risk for negative outcomes for themselves/their fetus including chromosomal abnormalities - Nutrition: inadequate diets of the mother can cause nutrition deficits in the fetus. Lack of folic acid can cause neural tube abnormalities. General malnutrition causes affects on brain development. Timing of malnutrition impacts severity (earlier on, worse effects). - Disease: Many illnesses have no effect but some do. STIs can damage the nervous system/blindness/death. HIV can be passed to the fetus. Some maternal illnesses can result in a higher occurrence of mental illnesses later in life. - Maternal Emotional State: Emotions of mum can affect the fetus' development. Ex. mothers who were very stressed produced more physically active babies. Higher levels of distress produced behavioural problems.