Developmental Psychology Week 1

1. Developmental Psychology Week 1 Module leader:Dr.Antonia Svensson-Dianellou Some slides by Dr. N. ryder (UH) And K. Kostakou (IST)

2. Module Aims • Learn about the central questions and findings of developmental psychology • with an emphasis on childhood • but including adolescence and adulthood (weeks 8-10) • Explore the ways in which psychologists go about studying these questions. • Learn about theories of development • Explore the relationship between theory and empirical research • Learn to read primary psychological literature (journal articles)

3. Resources Lecture slides on Studynetare only a brief guide. Make meaningful connections, don’t just memorise. Module outline under Module Information (DMD) Text books: Smith, Cowie & Blades (2003) Understanding Children’s Development (2 copies in library) Siegler, Deloache and Eisenberg (2006) How children develop Harris and Butterworth (2002) Developmental Psychology Slater and Bremner (2004, 2011) An Introduction to Developmental Psychology (2 copies in library) Harris (2008) Exploring Developmental Psychology It is essential to read the Journal articles

4. Module Assessment • 5% presentation of a journal article • Students will be allocated a journal article and given 1 week to read it and present a 10- 15 minute critical summary to the class • 15% multiple choice test • Students are responsible for attending the date of the test. Failure to attend will result in a zero being recorded. • No alternative dates • Normal extenuating circumstances procedures apply (see student handbook for details). • 80% Exam – past papers available on Voyager but note there are some topic changes this year.

5. Lecture Topics • Theories and methods of developmental psychology • Conception Infancy, including attachment • Language and interaction • Socioemotional development • Play and peer interaction • Physical and cognitive development • Childcare, school and bullying • Childhood disorders incl. Autism • Adolescence • Early-adulthood • Mid-adulthood • Older age

6. Developmental Psychology Definition The branch of Psychology that attempts to describe and explain the changes that occur over one human’s lifetime in the thought, behavior, reasoning and functioning due to biological, individual and environmental influences.

7. Nature of Development • Change occurs all the time and throughout the lifespan • Change that is part of the process by which over time children move from a less mature to a more mature way of thinking and behaving • Psychologists look at behaviour and describe it but more importantly they ask: What are the actual mechanisms responsible for change?

8. Child Development • Definition of development: • Change in the child that occurs over time. Changes follow an orderly pattern that moves toward greater complexity and enhances survival. • Periods of development: • Prenatal period: from conception to birth • Infancy and toddlerhood: birth to 2 years • Early childhood: 2-6 years old • Middle childhood: 6-12 years old • Adolescence: 12-19 years old

9. Domains of Development Development is described in the following domains, but growthin one domain influences the other domains. • Physical Domain: • body size, body proportions, appearance, brain development, motor development, perception capacities, physical health. • Cognitive Domain: • thought processes and intellectual abilities including attention, memory, problem solving, imagination, creativity, academic and everyday knowledge, metacognition, and language. • Social/Emotional Domain: • self-knowledge (self-esteem, metacognition, sexual identity, ethnic identity), moral reasoning, understanding and expression of emotions, self-regulation, temperament, understanding others, interpersonal skills, and friendships.

10. Central issues in Developmental Psychology • Children undergo huge changes - physical mental motor social emotional cognitive - skills develop • Important to remember the inter relatedness of changes – one can affect the other i.e. cognitive thinking is closely linked to emotional change.

11. Social Construction of ‘childhood’:Beliefs vary across time and culture During medival period: • Children seen as little adults • Childhood was not a unique phase • Children were cared for until they could begin caring for themselves, around 7 years old • Children were treated as adults (e.g. their clothing, worked at adult jobs, could be married, were made into kings, were imprisoned or hanged as adults) 20th Century: • Theories about children's development expanded around the world • Childhood was seen as worthy of special attention • Laws were passed to protect children

12. Central issues in Developmental Psychology • to which extent does development occur through the gradual accumulation of knowledge versus stage-like development, or • to which extent are children born with innate mental structures versus learning through experience Many researchers are interested in the interaction between personal characteristics, the individual's behavior, and environmental factors including social context and their impact on development; others take a more narrowly focused approach

13. Central issues in Developmental Psychology One of the major controversies in developmental psychology centers around whether development is continuous or discontinuous. Stage theories of development rest on the assumption that development is a discontinuous process involving distinct stages which are characterised by qualitative differences in behaviour (e.g. change in speech) Stage theories can be contrasted with continuous theories, which posit that development is an incremental process(e.g.vocabulary development)

14. Central issues in Developmental Psychology Nature/Nurture A significant issue in developmental psychology is the relationship between This is often referred to as : environmental influence innateness "nature versus nurture" or nativism versus empiricism.

15. Central issues in Developmental Psychology • A nativist account of development would argue that the processes in question are innate, that is, they are specified by the organism's genes. • An empiricist perspective would argue that those processes are acquired in interaction with the environment. Today developmental psychologists rarely take such extreme positions with regard to most aspects of development; rather they investigate, among many other things, the relationship between innate and environmental influences One of the ways in which this relationship has been explored in recent years is through the emerging field of evolutionary developmental psychology.

16. Theories Theoretical perspectives attempting to explain development: • Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual theory • Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development • John B. Watson's and B. F. Skinner's behaviorism • Albert Bandura's Social learning theory • Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory • Lev Vygotsky's Social Contextualism Many other theories attempting to explain particular aspects of development, e.g.: • attachment theory describes kinds of interpersonal relationships (John Bowlby, Harry Harlow, Mary Ainsworth) • Lawrence Kohlberg describes stages in moral reasoning

17. Psychoanalytical Theories Beliefs focus on the formation of personality. According to this approach, children move through various stages, confronting conflicts between biological drives and social expectations.

18. Sigmund Freud (1905) Psychosexual Theory • Was based on his therapy with troubled adults. • He emphasized that a child's personality is formed by the ways which his parents managed his sexual and aggressive drives. • Jung and Adler

19. Erik Erikson (1959) Psychosocial Theory • Expanded on Freud's theories. • Believed that development is life-long. • Emphasized that at each stage, the child acquires attitudes and skills resulting from the successful negotiation of the psychological conflict. • Identified 8 stages: • Basic trust vs mistrust (birth - 1 year) • Autonomy vs shame and doubt (ages 1-3) • Initiative vs guilt (ages 3-6) • Industry vs inferiority (ages 6-11) • Identity vs identity confusion (adolescence) • Intimacy vs isolation (young adulthood) • Generativity vs stagnation (middle adulthood) • Integrity vs despair (the elderly)

20. Behavioral and Social Learning Theories Beliefs that describe the importance of the environment and nurturing in the growth of a child. Developed as a response to psychoanalytical theories Behaviorism became the dominant view from the 1920's to 1960's

21. John Watson • Early 20th century, "Father of American Behaviorist theory.” • Based his work on Pavlov's experiments on the digestive system of dogs. • Researched classical conditioning • Children are passive beings who can be molded by controlling the stimulus-response associations.

22. B. F. Skinner • Proposed that children "operate" on their environment, operational conditioning. • Believed that learning could be broken down into smaller tasks, and that offering immediate rewards for accomplishments would stimulate further learning.

23. Social Learning Theory Albert Bandura • Stressed how children learn by observation and imitation. • Believed that children gradually become more selective in what they imitate.

24. Ethology • Examines how behavior is determined by a species' need for survival. • Has its roots in Charles Darwin's research. • Describes a "critical period" or "sensitive period,” for learning

25. Konrad Lorenz • Ethologist, widely known for his research on imprinting.

26. Attachment Theory • John Bowlby applied ethological principles to his theory of attachment. • Attachment between an infant and her caregiver can insure the infant’s survival. • Theory tested and developed by Mary Ainsworth • Has recently been applied to fields such as psychosis

27. Cognitive Theories Beliefs that describe how children learn

28. Jean Piaget Cognitive development theory • Children "construct" their understanding of the world through their active involvement and interactions. • Studied his 3 children to focus not on what they knew but how they knew it. • Described children's understanding as their "schemas” and how they use: • assimilation • accommodation.

29. Piaget’s Cognitive DevelopmentStages • Sensori-motor • Ages birth - 2: the infant uses his senses and motor abilities to understand the world • Preoperation • Ages 2-7: the child uses mental representations of objects and is able to use symbolic thought and language • Concrete operations • Ages 7-11; the child uses logical operations or principles when solving problems • Formal operations • Ages 12 up; the use of logical operations in a systematic fashion and with the ability to use abstractions

30. Lev Vygotsky Socio-Cultural Theory • Agreed that children are active learners, but their knowledge is socially constructed. • Cultural values and customs dictate what is important to learn. • Children learn from more expert members of the society. • Vygotsky described the "zone of proximal development", where learning occurs.

31. Systems Theory The belief that development can't be explained by a single concept, but rather by a complex system.

32. Urie Bronfenbrenner (1979) Ecological Systems Theory ‘Development in context’ • The varied systems of the environment and the interrelationships among the systems shape a child's development. • Both the environment and biology influence the child's development. • The environment affects the child and the child influences the environment.

33. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model • The microsystem - activities and interactions in the child's immediate surroundings: parents, school, friends, etc. • The mesosystem - relationships among the entities involved in the child's microsystem: parents' interactions with teachers, a school's interactions with the daycare provider • The exosystem - social institutions which affect children indirectly: the parents' work settings and policies, extended family networks, mass media, community resources • The macrosystem - broader cultural values, laws and governmental resources • The chronosystem - changes which occur during a child's life, both personally, like the birth of a sibling and culturally, like the Iraqi war.

34. Exlplaining changes over the Lifespan Shared, age-graded changes: • Inevitable for all of us and linked to age (biological – such as hormones at puberty - and social – such as schooling) • Shared Internal changes e.g. Learning to walk means physical independence but also a move towards greater psychological independence Cultural or cohort effects: • Each culture has its own standards and expectations for e.g. The age at which people marry • The word ‘cohort’ is used to describe groups of individuals born within a particular historical period who have shared the same experiences e.g. During The Great Depression of the 1920s WW1 or WW2. Unique life experiences: • Abandonment, divorce, death of a family member etc.

35. Research Design in Developmental Psychology Research design Developmental psychologists have a number of methods to study changes in individuals over time • In a longitudinal study, a researcher observes many individuals born at or around the same time (a cohort) and carries out new observations as members of the cohort age. This method can be used to draw conclusions about which types of development are universal (or normative) and occur in most members of a cohort. Researchers may also observe ways in which development varies between individuals and hypothesize about the causes of variation observed in their data. Longitudinal studies often require large amounts of time and funding, making them unfeasible in some situations. Also, because members of a cohort all experience historical events unique to their generation, apparently normative developmental trends may in fact be universal only to their cohort.

36. Research Design in Developmental Psychology • In a cross-sectional study, a researcher observes differences between individuals of different ages at the same time. • requires less resources than the longitudinal method, and because the individuals come from different cohorts, shared historical events are not so much of a confounding factor. • however, cross-sectional research may not be the most effective way to study differences between participants, as these differences may result not from their different ages but from their exposure to different historical events.

37. Research Design in Developmental Psychology • An accelerated longitudinal design or cross-sequential study or cohort-sequential design combines both methodologies. Here, a researcher observes members of different birth cohorts at the same time, and then tracks all participants over time, charting changes in the groups. By comparing differences and similarities in development, one can more easily determine what changes can be attributed to individual or historical environment, and which are truly universal. Clearly such a study can be even more resource-consuming than a longitudinal study.

38. Research Design in Developmental Psychology • Additionally, these are all correlational, not experimental, designs, and so one cannot readily infer causation from the data they yield. • Nonetheless, correlational research methods are common in the study of development, in part due to ethical concerns. • In a study of the effects of poverty on development, for instance, one cannot easily randomly assign certain families to a poverty condition and others to an affluent one, and so observation alone has to suffice.

39. Research Design in Developmental Psychology Techniques for data collection: • Self-Reference • Baby biographies • Observation in multiple settings / in a distinct setting • Experiments • Clinical Interview

40. Can one theory explain developmental changes? • Developmental Systems perspective Early developmental theories focus on a nature or nurture explanation. Harris (2008 chptr 1) describes it as an ‘awful term coined in 1869 by Galton) but in the 20th century no one seriously believes it is either/or. Developmental change is seen as mere triggering of innate knowledge or as inductive learning (Elman et al 1996) Margaret Mead 1928

41. Interaction • Low serotonin levels in humans are linked to alcoholism and depression. • Identical twin studies can help explain relationships

42. Key points • Some of the arguments are very complex but it is important to understand that there are important RECIPROAL influences within and between the different levels of development within the individual. Genetic activity, neural activity behaviour and physical and socio-cultural effects of the environment all interact. • Modern developmental accounts look both at the effects that operate at the level of the individual and those that are evident within a social group or culture. • Theories are complex because they need to consider the interrelation of many different influences on development. Harris (2008) suggests thatmaybe the reason developmental research often concentrates on data collection and interpretation RATHER than the wider implications of developmental theory.

43. A child shapes their own environment • Siegler et al (2006 p11) • Three important factors in early development 1 through attention patterns 2 through the use of language 3 through play

44. Example: Use of language • Infants begin to speak at around 9 to 15m • 1-2 year olds often talk when they are alone. • Siegler et al (2006) suggest they would only do this if they were internally motivated to learn language – they practise talking on their own even when there is no one around to respond. Crib speech may help to improve speech and exercise the facial muscles, breathing rate, intonation and so on.

45. Summary • There is a reciprocal relationship in development: • As children develop they contribute to their own development by experiencing things. • When they are young parents are largely involved in deciding what the child experiences. • As children get older their own choices contribute to their development (including choice of friends, social activities etc.)

46. Recommended reading Core textbooks: • Chapters 1 & 2 , Smith et al. (2003)

47. Journal article presentation (5%) • Summarise the content of the article • If it is long it is very long it is okay to be selective • Criticize the theory being tested • How does it compare against competing theories in the area? • What are its strengths and weaknesses? Is it the most appropriate theory to use in this case? • Does the research design provide a satisfactory test of the research hypotheses? • Consider the participants, methods, statistical tests used if your article is reporting one study or comment on the range of methods if it is a review article

48. Journal article presentation (5%) • Are any other explanations able to account for the results? • You may wish to highlight problems with the conculsions or the way in which the authors have dealt withalternative explanations. • What are the implications of the article? • Why is it important? • How can we use the findings? • Recommend future ways of investigating the topic Guidelines on Studynet

49. Next Week Attachment • Research findings • Theory • Implications