Lifespan A: Developmental, WEEK 1

Question 1

What is developmental psychology?

What do developmental researchers fundamentally ask?

Answer 1

• scientific study of neural, cognitive, emotional, behavioural and social development
• Developmental researchers always ask what develops? and what are the causes of development

Question 2

Definition of development

Answer 2

• idea of how humans grow & change throughout their lifespan > focusing on systematic changes which are causal, organised + successive (in psych)

Question 3

Concepts within development

Answer 3

• Universals
• Individual differences
• Continuity/Discontinuity
• Stability/Instability
  (continuity + stability co-exist)

Question 4

What are universals?

Answer 4

• things that most commonly occur through species at certain points in development (e.g:when kids start to talk)
• Researchers who use universals (eg: Piaget) focus on stages + qualitative differences > assumes a ‘normal’ mature point in which variation doesn’t matter
• Experimental focus

Question 5

What are individual differences?

Answer 5

• Focuses on why people are different from each other > in this case variation is central unlike universals
• Focus on quantitative differences
• Natural focus

Question 6

What is continuity & discontinuity?

Answer 6

• Refers to how consistent groups are over time
• E.G: memory test is given today + same test given at another date and the means were the same = continuity. > if means differed = discontinuity
  (how consistent are the means of the group)

Question 7

What is stability & instability?

Answer 7

• refers to rank order (your position relative to those in your group) in the group. > if you maintain the same position (eg: top/bottom) then = stability. > if your position changes from eg; bottom to top, this = instability

Question 8

2 types of stability

Answer 8

• Homotypic: when we use the same measure twice at different points in development (e.g: same IQ test used twice at different ages) (A>A)
• Heterotypic: when the original measure isn’t suitable to use at a different age due to developmental impact so a new similar measure is used, assuming same underlying ability underpins performance (e.g: measuring tantrums in children + adult has to be different) (A>A1)

Question 9

Why is stability & continuity important to development?

Answer 9

• stability + continuity is important to dev psychologists as it shows a pattern of people changing over time (continuity/discontinuity + stability/instability) > can then investigate what and why they changed

Question 10

Developmental theories

Answer 10

• Domain specific theory: focuses on a particular behaviour/skill + emphasises processes with narrow effects (e.g: Hamlins ‘moral sense’ theory)
• Domain general theory: focuses on a range of traits/skills + emphasises mechanism or processes with broad effects (e.g: Piaget’s theory of cognitive dev)

Question 11

Is age an explanation for development?

Answer 11

• Not necessarily, age is an ambiguous variable where it means different things across different times and cultures (e.g: activities a 12 year old in the Victorian times engaged in is different to what a 12 year old now would)

Question 12

Overarching theories explaining development

Answer 12

• Empiricism
• Nativism
• Pragmatism
• Developmental systems theory

Question 13

Empiricism (nurture)

Berkely & Hume etc

Answer 13

• Key idea is that people are born as ‘blank slates’ thus we gather ideas about the world through learning + reinforcement. > e.g Skinner’s study on reinforcement
• Everything an adult knows has developed through experience
• 3 term contingency relation: antecedent stimulus (e.g: parent saying don’t touch the stove), behaviour (not touching it), consequent stimulus (parent gives praise + behaviour wont repeat)

Question 14

Nativism (nature)

Answer 14

• psychologists like Chomsky and Fodor challenge Skinners idea
• concepts + knowledge are innate, not from experience
• Fodor argues the mind is comprised of innate specialised modules for processing different modules > we are born with an innate readiness to learn (e.g: we learn to do long division but we don’t learn what a number is > maturation helps build on idea of numbers)

Question 15

Nature-Nurture false dichotomy

Answer 15

• N/N work in conjunction + cannot be separated >
• genes can influence our environment (shown in adoption studies)
• environment can influence our gene expression (process is DNA > RNA > proteins > brain > development. in between processing, EV may impact > shown in animal studies)

Question 16

Pragmatism

Answer 16

• Alternative to basic nature or nurture approach > considered a ‘third way’
• Pragmatism is a set of ideas based on action > lead by Piaget
• Piaget argues N/N isn’t important for development but the child’s ability to take action is > children have to actively engage with surroundings to modify underlying thinking + adapt.
• Piaget believes we are born with some form of innate readiness to learn from but it is reflection of experience which is important for development

Question 17

Piaget’s constructionism

Answer 17

• cognitive dev seen as progressing through distinct stages (Piaget doesn’t focus on nature or nurture but focuses on the action of the organism > pragmatic)
• reciprocal relationship is present between organism, stimuli and response so there is active processing

Question 18

Nature-Nurture dichotomy

Answer 18

• Debates whether development is due to nature and innate skills or due to nurture and experience.
• Nature focuses on maturation + is environment peripheral
• Nurture focuses on learning + is environment central

Question 19

Developmental systems theory

Bronfenbrenner (1977)

Answer 19

• Dev psychologists were focusing too narrowly defined groups in labs >
• approach argues we cannot understand development without looking at interaction between the individual + environment across time
• children are in complex system consisting of the microsystem (childs health,age etc), mesosystem (family,school), exosystem (mass media) , macrosystem (ideology of culture) and chronosystem (conditions + time since life events) > these all impact how a child develops
• focuses on systematic change + plasticity (not nature or nurture specifically) > dev across time with all factors interlinking
• dev from multiple perspectives + diversity in terms of people, time and settings