1

Children
The Nature

of
Childrens Development

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Why Is Caring For Children Important?

Images of Children
Stories of Ted Kaczynski and Alice Walker
A child genius becomes a social misfit and a murderer.

An impoverished and painful childhood leads to creativity and award-winning publications.

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Why Is Caring For Children Important?

Child Development
Development pattern of change from conception, throughout the life span Importance of studying development
Improving childrens lives Improving health and well-being Learning better parenting Improving child education Better social policies affecting children

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Why Is Caring For Children Important?

Historical Views of Development

Early views of childhood
Medieval Europe
No distinction from adults Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans Rich conceptions of childhood

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Why Is Caring For Children Important?

Historical Views of Development

Three influential philosophical views
Middle Ages
Original sin view End of 1800s Tabula rasa (John Locke) Eighteenth century Innate goodness (Rousseau)

Today: childhood is unique

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Why Is Caring For Children Important?

Modern Studies of Childhood

Began in late 1800s
Use of sophisticated science
New ways of thinking about children Shift from philosophical view to systematic observation and experimentation

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Why Is Caring For Children Important?

Major Theories
Evolutionary view G.S. Hall
Stages of distinct motives and capabilities

Psychoanalytic theory S. Freud

Stage theory stressing parenting First 5 years influence later life

Behaviorism John Watson

Environment influences behavior

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What Characterizes Development?

Biological, Cognitive, and Socioemotional Development

Genetic epistemology (J. Baldwin)
Child knowledge changes over development

Biological processes
Physical changes in a person

Cognitive processes
Changes in thought, IQ, and language

Socioemotional processes
Personality, emotions, relationships
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What Characterizes Development?

Periods of Development
Prenatal conception to birth

Infancy birth to 18-24 months of age

Early childhood infancy to 5-6 years Middle/late childhood 6 to 11 years (elementary years) Adolescence 10 or 12 until 18 years (may vary beyond these years)

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What Characterizes Development?

Issues in Development
Nature-Nurture issue
Nature
Influences of biological inheritance Development seen as orderly Nurture Influences of environment Influenced by social experiences Deprivation or enrichment have impact

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What Characterizes Development?

Issues in Development
Continuity-discontinuity issue
Continuity
Gradual, continuous changes Discontinuity Distinct stages, abrupt changes

Early-later experiences
Hotly debated Malleable or resilient to experiences?
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 Nature and nurture

Discontinuity

Continuity and discontinuity

Continuity

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What Characterizes Development?

Importance of Research
Scientific Method
Conceptualize or identify a problem
Refer to a theory (set of ideas that predict) Develop a hypothesis (testable assumption) Collect the data (to test the hypothesis) Analyze the data (by statistical methods) Draw conclusions Compare to other research outcomes

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What Characterizes Development?

Theories of Development
Psychoanalytic theories
Behavior affected by underlying emotions and unconscious mind
Personality (S. Freud)

Id (unconscious instincts)
Ego (executive branch of mind, deals with reality)

Superego (moral branch of mind, ones conscience)

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What Characterizes Development?

Freuds Stages
Oral: Birth to 18 months Anal: 18 months to 3 years Phallic: 3 to 6 years (Oedipus complex) Latency: 6 years to puberty Genital: Puberty onward

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What Characterizes Development?

Theories of Development
Psychosocial theory (E. Erikson)
Change occurs over life span in 8 stages
Each stage has unique crisis to resolve, not a catastrophe to future development if not resolved Each stage has developmental task

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Psychosocial theory
Late adulthood Middle adulthood
Integrity vs. despair Generativity vs. stagnation Intimacy vs. isolation Identity vs. identity confusion Industry vs. inferiority Initiative vs. guilt Autonomy vs. shame and doubt Trust vs. mistrust
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Early adulthood
Adolescence Middle and late childhood Early childhood Infancy: 1 to 3 years

Infancy: 1st year of life

Caring for Children

Strategies Based on Eriksons Theory

Nurture infants, develop trust, encourage and monitor autonomy Encourage initiative Promote industry in elementary years Stimulate adolescent identity exploration

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Caring for Children

Cognitive Theories
Cognitive development theory (J. Piaget)
Children actively construct their understanding of the world
Accommodation and Assimilation

Four stages of cognitive development

Two underlying processes: Organization

Adaptation

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Caring for Children

Cognitive Development Theory

Birth to 2 yrs 2 - 7 yrs Sensorimotor

Uses senses and motor skills, items known by use; object permanence Symbolic thinking, language used; egocentric thinking, imagination/ experience grow, child de-centers Logic applied, objective/rational interpretations; conservation, numbers, ideas, classifications Thinks abstractly, hypothetical ideas; ethics, politics, social/moral issues explored

Pre-operational

7 - 11 yrs

Concrete operational

11 yrs on Formal operational

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Caring for Children

Cognitive Theories
Sociocultural theory (L. Vygotsky)
Social and cultural interaction guide cognitive development
Child needs interaction with more skilled adults and peers Interactions teach adaptive skills for success Knowledge is situated and collaborative

Memory, attention, reasoning involves learning to use societys inventions

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Caring for Children

Cognitive Theories
Information processing theory
Capacity is gradually developed (no stages)
Comparing computer to human brain Hardware analogous to brain Software analogous to cognition Emphasizes how individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it

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Information Processing Theory

Sensory information

STORAGE

INPUT
economics literature

RETRIEVAL
Information is used as basis of behaviors and interactions

Information is taken into brain

culture science

religion

Information gets processed, analyzed, and stored until use

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history

math

Caring for Children

Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

Behaviorism
Development is observable behavior
Behavior is learned from environmental experiences

Scientific measurements possible

Change environment to affect behavior

Four major theorists: Skinner, Pavlov, Bandura, and Watson

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Caring for Children

Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

Classical Conditioning (I. Pavlov)
Neutral stimulus acquires ability to produce response originally produced by another stimulus Dogs salivated to food
Pairing food with bell produces salivation Sound of bell will produce salivation without food

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Caring for Children

Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

Classical conditioning (J. Watson)
Experiment: Little Albert and the white rat
Generalizing fear as an involuntary response

Operant Conditioning (B.F. Skinner)

Consequences of behavior change probability of behaviors occurrence Use of punishments and rewards shapes behavior and development

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Caring for Children

Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

Social Cognitive Theory (A. Bandura)
Observational learning: use imitation or modeling to adopt behaviors
Behavior, environment, and cognition are key factors in development Most recent model of learning Three elements: behavior, environmental, and person/cognitive operate together

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Caring for Children

Social Cognitive Model

Behavior

Person/ Cognitive

Environment

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Caring for Children

Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

Ethological theory
Ethology stresses behavior influenced by biology
Critical (sensitive) periods for learning

Lorenz experiment: imprinting

Bowlby: attachment to caretaker is important in first year of life

Can be positive or negative

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Caring for Children

Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

Ecological theory (U. Bronfenbrenner)
Development influenced by several environmental systems
Current modification

Added biological influences

Renamed Bioecological theory Has merits and criticisms

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Caring for Children

Ecological Theory

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Caring for Children

Research Methods
Observation
Laboratory or naturalistic observation

Survey and interview Standardized test uniform procedures Case study in-depth on individual Physiological measures
fMRI (electromagnetic waves used)

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Caring for Children

Research Methods
Research designs (for data collection)
Descriptive research: observe and record
Correlational research: measure strength of association

Correlation coefficient shows strength and direction, not causality

Statistical number

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Caring for Children

Research Methods
Experimental research
Behavior manipulated, change measured
Demonstrates cause and effect Independent variable (gets manipulated) Dependent variable (gets measured) Control group (forms baseline measure) Experimental group (gets manipulated) Random assignment (assignment by chance)

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Caring for Children

Research Methods
Time span of research
Cross-sectional approach
Several groups (usually different ages) compared at one time

Longitudinal approach
Follows same group over long period of time (usually years)

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Caring for Children

Research Challenges
Conducting ethical research
Protect rights of research subjects
Do no harm (?) and adhere to code of ethics Use of informed consent Respect confidentiality Conduct debriefing Avoid deception (controversial here)

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Caring for Children

Minimizing Bias
Gender bias preconceived ideas about female and male abilities, magnifying differences found Cultural and ethnic bias excluding minorities, preconceived ideas of not being average Ethnic gloss use of ethnic label portraying ethnic groups as more homogeneous than they really are
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The End

2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.