Module 1: Overview of Developmental Maturity

Psychology
“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to
mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” ~
Henri Bergson
Developmental Psychology
- It is a branch of psychology that studies
changes that occur through lifespan.
- Deals with how individuals change with
time while remaining in some respects
the same.
“It is a perception that each of us is unique in
the universe and yet shape, form and color
remind us we are elements in nature- that we
are all connected.” ~ Andrea Harris
 Marks the end of growth and
development.
 It is the unfolding of genetically
prescribed “preprogrammed” patterns
of behavior.
 It is characterized by completion of
structural changes and attainment of
the capacity to function physically and
mentally.
Learning
 A relatively permanent change in
behavior that results from practice or
experience.
Developmental Periods

Growth  Prenatal Period (conception to birth)

 Infancy (birth to 2 years) – Birth to 2
- Refers to changes that are quantitative
weeks of living out their mother’s
in nature.
womb.
3 elements:  Early childhood (2 to 5 years) – Pre-
school age
1. Increase in size  Middle and Late Childhood (6 to 11
2. Differentiation of structure years) – Elementary age
3. Alteration of form  Adolescence (10-12 to 18-21 years) –
Beginning of Adolescence stage 10-12
Development
(Menarche for girls) 18-21 end of the
- Refers to changes that are qualitative in Adolescence stage.
nature.  Early Adulthood (20s to 30s) – First sub-
- Progressive series of orderly changes; stage
these are coherent changes leading  Middle Adulthood (40s to 50s) – Mid-
toward the goal of maturity. life crisis
 Late Adulthood (60s to death)
Domains of Development:
Issues on Development (3)
1. Physical/Motor
2. Cognitive Nature vs. Nurture controversy
3. Social
4. Emotional The scientific controversy regarding whether
5. Moral/Spiritual the primary source of developmental change

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rests in biological (nature) factors or
environmental and experiential (nurture)
factors.
Continuity vs. Discontinuity debate
The scientific controversy regarding whether
development is constant and connected
(continuous) or uneven and disconnected
(discontinuous)
Normative vs. Idiographic development
The question of whether research should focus
on identifying commonalities in human
development (normative development) or on
the causes of individual differences (idiographic
development).
Principles of Development (9)
Development proceeds from head downward.
This is called the cephalocaudal principle. This
principle describes the direction of growth and
development. According to this principle, the
child gains control of the head first, then the
arms, and then the legs. (Physical development)
Development proceeds from the center of the
body outward.
This is the principle of proximodistal
development (central to the peripheral) “centre
to outward” that also describes the direction of
development. This means that the spinal cord
develops before outer parts of the body. The
child’s arms develop before the hands and the
hands and feet develop before the fingers and
toes.
Development is a product of the interaction of
the organism and its environment.
The processes of heredity and environment are
interdependent and complementary. Heredity
cannot produce its effects without environment
and the environment needs the organism
supplied by heredity upon which to produce its
effects. (They go hand in hand)
Development depends on maturation and
learning.
Maturation refers to the sequential
characteristic of biological growth and
development. The biological changes occur in
sequential order and give children new abilities.
Developmental patterns show wide individual
differences.
Great individual differences in developmental
patterns can be seen in comparing children or
even in observing an individual child.
Development proceeds from simple (concrete)
to the more complex.
Children use their cognitive (ability) and
language skills to reason and solve problems.
Growth and development is a continuous
process.
As a child develops, he or she adds to the skills
already acquired and the new skills become the
basis for further achievement and mastery of
skills. Most children follow a similar pattern.
Also, one stage of development lays the
foundation for the next stage of development.
Growth and development proceed from the
general to specific.
In motor development, the infant will be able to
grasp an object with the whole hand before
using only the thumb and forefinger.
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There are individual rates of growth and
development.
Each child is different and the rates at which
individual children grow is different. Although
the patterns and sequences for growth and
development are usually the same for all
children, the rates at which individual children
reach developmental stages will be different.
Lesson 2: History and Founding Figures of
Human Development
Children in Pre-Modern Times
 Active infanticide was practiced prior to
4th century A.D.
 Children were seen as possessions
having no rights.
 Medieval times- although childhood is
recognized as a distinct phase of life,
little legal distinction was made.
Early Philosophical Perspectives on Childhood
 Dietrich Tiedemann (1748-1803) is
credited with creating the first baby
biography (1787), but there was little
follow-up to his work.
 Wilhelm Preyer (1841-1897) kept a
detailed account of the mental
development of his son during his first
four years. He published the results as
Die Seele des Kindes (The Mind of the
Child) (1882), a work frequently cited as
beginning the modern child psychology
movement.
 Milicent Shinn (1858-1940) the best
known baby biography from a collection
of observations of her niece, which she
began in 1890. A popular version was
later published as The Biography of a
Baby (1900).
 Difficulty to compare each other
 Objectivity is questionable
 Assumptions may have produced bias
 Based on 1 child

 Original sin (Hobbes): Children are Toward a Modern-day Views on Childhood

selfish and must be restrained by
 Schooling for moral and religious
society; born into the world as evil
education
beings.
 Reading and writing also important
 Innate purity/goodness (Rousseau):
 Treat children with warmth and
Children know right and wrong but
affection
society corrupts them; they are
 Adolescence recognized in the 20th
inherently good.
century
 Tabula rasa (Locke): Children are a
 Child labor laws passed in the late 19th
“blank slate”- experiences determine
century
outcomes.
 Education now compulsory
Children as subject of study: The Baby
Founding Figures and their Core Ideas
Biographies
Karl Ernst von Baer – He challenged the existing
 Late 19th century: Investigators began
ideas (preformationism or recapitulationism).
to observe own children and publish
Instead he introduced the idea that
the data.
development occurs in stages, allowing for

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individual characteristics to emerge from Lesson 3: Research in Developmental
general ones. Psychology

Charles Darwin –His evolutionary theory paved Scientific Method - Approach through which
the way for the idea that development occurs psychologists systematically acquired
as the child gradually adapts to its environment. knowledge and understanding about behavior
and other phenomena of interest.
G. Stanley Hall – Founder of developmental
psychology as a research discipline. First large- Communicate the findings (Cycle)
scale studies of children. He developed the
questionnaire. He produced first work to call Identifying questions of interest stemming
from:
attention to adolescence as a unique phase of
life.  Behavior and phenomenon requiring
Alfred Binet – He founded the first scientific explanation
journal in this area (L’annee Psychologique). He  Prior research findings
published an intelligence test (Binet-Simon  Curiosity, creativity, insight
Scale) which provided insight and guidance on
Formulate an explanation
the intellectual capabilities and potential of
those suffering from mental retardation.  Specify a theory
 Develop a hypothesis
J.M. Baldwin –He published Genetic Logic,
which introduced the concept that knowledge Carry out research
grows through childhood in a series of distinct
stages, from initial physical development to  Operationalize hypothesis
language and cognitive abilities.  Select a research method
 Collect the data
Jean Piaget – He was influenced by early  Analyze the data
theorists Binet and Baldwin. He initially
proposed that the interaction of babies with THEORIES – Broad explanations concerning
their environment paved the way for thinking phenomena of interest.
and language patterns.
HYPOTHESIS – Prediction, stemming from a
Lev Vygotsky – He was also influenced by the theory, stated in a way that allows it to be
early work of Baldwin and Binet. He focused, tested.
however, on the cultural input, suggesting that
Scientific Method – Every Baby knows
this was the critical factor that transforms
experience from basic elementary function to a 1. Make an observation
higher-order one. 2. Form a hypothesis
3. Perform the experiment
John Bowlby – He believed that a mother and
4. Analyze the data
child form an innate monotrophic bond and
5. Report your findings
that maternal deprivation occurs when the
6. Invite others to reproduce the results
bond is broken in some way.

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Type of Research (3)
1. Descriptive Research - An approach to
research designed to systematically
investigate a person, or patterns of
behavior. (4)
Advantage (A): Offers insight into relationship
variables
Shortcoming (S): Cannot determine causality
ARCHIVAL METHOD
 Research in which existing data (census
documents, college records, and
newspaper clippings) are examined to
test a hypothesis.
A: Ease of data collection because data already
exist
S: Dependent on availability of data
Dr. Avelino, a developmental psychologist
conducted a study involving the use of
psychology journals and magazines to
determine the effect of parenting styles on
students’ self-esteem. He found out that
neglectful and authoritarian parenting styles
cause low self-esteem among children.
NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION METHOD
 Research in which an investigator
simply observes some naturally
occurring behavior and does not make a
change in the situation.
 Whom we are observing?
 Where we will observe?
 How the observations will be made?
 How they will be recorded?
A: Provides a sample of people in their natural
environment
S: Cannot control the “natural habitat” being
observed
Dr. Avelino would like to find out the effect of
parenting styles in students’ self-esteem. In his
study, he identified two students with
authoritative and authoritarian parents.
Separately, he observed from afar the two
students and take note their behaviors and
manner of socializing with others. He found
out that the student with authoritative parent is
carefree, confident and loves to be with people
while the other student with authoritarian
parent is inhibited, lacks confidence and prefers
to be alone.
SURVEY METHOD
 Research in which people chosen to
present a larger population are asked a
series of questions about their
behavior, thoughts, or attitudes.
A: A small sample can be used to infer attitudes
and behavior of a larger population
S: Sample may not be representative of the
larger population; participants may not provide
accurate responses to survey questions.
Dr. Avelino gathered the data needed for his
study by floating a questionnaire among 150
parents who attended the PTA meeting. The
questionnaire aims to identify their parenting
practices. Based on the retrieved
questionnaires, he found out that 75 out of 150
parents are authoritative, 50 on the other hand
are permissive and 25 are neglectful.
CASE STUDY METHOD
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  An in-depth, intensive investigation of
an individual or small group of people.
Notes:
 Uses multiply study method.
 Having a hard time gathering
participants, also time consuming.
A: Provides a thorough, in-depth understanding
of participants
S: Results may not be generalizable beyond the
sample
Dr. Avelino extensively gathered information
about the case of his nine-year old client who
is extremely aloof to other people. He
conducted several observations in the
classroom, interviews to parents and
psychological tests to the client. Based from the
findings, he concluded that the child’s behavior
was caused by his parents’ authoritarian
parenting style.
2. CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH
Research in which the relationship between two
sets of variables is examined to determine
whether they are associated, or “correlated”
 Correlation Coefficient ( +1.0 to -1.0)
 Positive Correlation
 Negative Correlation
A: offers insight into relationship variables
S: Cannot determine causality
Notes:
 Strength and it’s Direction
Dr. Avelino wants to determine the relationship
between permissive parenting style and
children’s lack of self-control. Findings revealed
that as permissive parenting increases,
children’s self-control decreases.
3. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
EXPERIMENT – the investigation of the
relationship between two (or more) variables by
deliberately producing a change in one variable
in a situation and observing the effects of that
change on other aspects of the situation.
 What is the purpose of any experiment?
To establish cause-effect relationship
 What one thing distinguishes
experimental research from the rest?
The presence of Independent Variable
(IV) Manipulation
Notes:
 Experimental Research – Independent
Variable – Experimenter Manipulator.
 Dependent Variable – Change
Independent and Dependent Variables
INDEPENDENT VARIABLE – The variable that is
manipulated by an experimenter.
DEPENDENT VARIABLE – The variable that is
measured and is expected to change as a result
of changes caused by the experimenter’s
manipulation of the independent variable.
RANDOM ASSIGNMENT TO CONDITIONS – A
procedure in which participants are assigned to
different experimental groups or “conditions”
on the basis of chance and chance alone.
Experimental Group and Control Group
EXPERIMENTAL GROUP – A group participating
in an experiment that receives a treatment.
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CONTROL GROUP – A group participating in an
experiment that receives no treatment.
Notes:
 Serve as a baseline
Minimum requirements to establish causality
between X and Y
 Precedence: X precedes Y, the
(intervention comes first before the
effect)
 Correlation/Association: X must be
significantly related to Y
 No other variable influence/explains Y
except X.
A: Offer the only way to determine cause- effect
relationship.
S: To be valid, experiments require random
assignment of participants to conditions, well-
conceptualized independent and dependent
variables, and controlling extraneous variables.
Dr. Avelino wants to determine the effect of
parents’ reminder to children’s self-control. In
his study, he formed two groups and placed
them in a laboratory. Prior to the experiment,
parents of one group were asked to remind
their children to not eat the marshmallows in
front of them while parents of other group did
not give any reminder to their children. During
the experiment, the researcher asked the two
groups to eat the marshmallow in front of
them. Based on the findings, there were more
children who did not eat the marshmallows
since they were reminded by their parents as
supposed to those children who were not
reminded by their parents.
TIME SPAN IN RESEARCH
Longitudinal Approach – studies the same
individuals at different point in their life.
Example: Group of individuals assessed during
their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s
Advantage:
 Provide wealth of information about
issues such as stability and change in
development and the importance of
early experiences for later
development.
Shortcoming:
 Attrition
 Time-consuming and costly
 Test familiarity
Dr. Avelino wants to investigate iconic memory
and age by selecting a group of individuals
which were tested at 10-year intervals. In his
experiment, he asked the group to memorize 20
images. Each image was flashed for 10 seconds.
Afterwards, each group were instructed to
recall the images as many as they can for 5
minutes. The table shows the performance of
the group on the memory test at 10-year
intervals.
Cross-Sectional Approach – compares different
groups of people of different ages at the same
point in time.
Examples: Three groups of children- 5 years-
olds, 8-year-olds and 11-year-old. Groups of 15-
year-olds, 30-year-olds, 45-year-olds
Advantage:
 The researcher does not need to wait
for the individuals to grow up and
become older.
 Less costly and time-consuming
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Shortcoming:
 It gives no information about how
individuals change and or about the
stability of their characteristics.
 It can obscure the increases and
decreases of development- the hills and
valleys of growth and development.
Dr. Avelino wants to investigate iconic memory
and age by selecting a group of 20-year-olds, a
group of 30-year-olds, a group of 40-year-olds
and so on, through our last group, 70-year-olds.
In his experiment, he asked each group to
memorize 20 images. Each image was flashed
for 10 seconds. Afterwards, each group were
instructed to recall the images as many as they
can for 5 minutes. The table shows the
performance of each group on the memory
test.
A cohort is a group of people who are born at a
similar point in history and share similar
experiences. Think for a moment about growing
up during (a) Martial Law and (b) today.
Cohort effects –are due to a person’s time of
birth, era or generation but not to actual age.
CONDUCTING ETHICAL RESEARCH – The
participants’ best interests need to be kept
foremost in the researcher’s mind.
APA’s guidelines address four important issues:
1. Informed consent
2. Confidentiality
3. Debriefing
4. Deception
Lesson 3: Theories on Human Development
 Psychoanalytic theories
 Cognitive theories
 Behavioral and social cognitive theories
 Moral development theory
 Ethological theory
 Ecological theory
 Eclectic theoretical orientation
Psychoanalytic Theories
Sigmund Freud – Proponent of psychoanalytic
theory and Proposed the psychosexual stages of
development.
Notes:
 An Austrian psychologist
 He use the “Ice berg analogy”
 Conscious and Unconsciousness
 ID – Is the seat of all our desires and
wants.
 EGO – Is able to discern what is right or
wrong based on context.
 SUPER EGO – seeks to attain the ideal
of a perfect ego. However, the
superego is irrational in its idea and
pursuit of perfection.
Erik Erikson – Revisionist of Sigmund Freud and
proposed the psychosocial stages of
development
Notes:
 Importance of social
 Stages on Psychosocial Development
Trust and mistrust – Infant
Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt – Toddler
Initiative vs. Guilt – Pre-schooler
Industry vs. Inferiority – Grade schooled
Identity vs. Identity Diffusion –
Adolescent
Intimacy vs. Isolation – Young adult
Generativity vs. Stagnation – Middle
age adult
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 Ego Integrity vs. Despair – Older adult
Cognitive Theories
Jean Piaget – Influenced by the early works of
J.M. Baldwin and Alfred Binet and Proponent of
cognitive development theory.
Basic concepts of Piaget Theories
Schema – a hypothetical mental structure that
permits the classification and organization of
new information.
Assimilation – responding to new stimulus
through existing cognitive structures.
Accommodation – the modification of schemas
so that information consistent with existing
schemas can be integrated or understood.
Cognitive Stages
1st stage: SENSORIMOTOR (birth-2 years)
 A child has little competence in
representing the environment by using
images, language or other symbols.
 Object permanence -the awareness
that objects and people continue to
exist even if they are out of sight.
 Lack of object permanence “Out of
mind, out of sight”
 Development of object permanence
 Peak-a-boo
2nd stage: PREOPERATIONAL (2 to 7 years)
 Characterized by language development
and symbolic thinking
 Preoperational Stage - Not yet
developed the ability to understand
principle of conservation
Preoperational Thoughts
Egocentric thought – a way of thinking in which
a child views the world entirely from his or her
own perspective.
Animism – the belief that inanimate objects
move because of will or spirit.
Artificialism – the belief that natural objects
have been created by human beings.
3rd stage: CONCRETE OPERATIONAL (7 to 12
years)
 Characterized by logical thought and
loss of egocentrism
 Mastery of the principle of conservation
and principle of reversibility
4th stage: FORMAL OPERATIONAL (12 years to
adulthood)
 Development of logical and abstract
thinking
 Thinking is no longer ties to events that
individuals observe in the environment
but makes use of logical techniques to
resolve problems
Lev Vygotsky - ➢Russian developmentalist and
Proponent of Sociocultural Theory
Basic concept on Vygotsky’s theory
 Children’s cognitive development is
affected by their social interactions with
their elders.
 Transmission of knowledge is
cumulative.
 Zone of proximal development (ZPD) –
situation in which a child carries out
tasks with the help of someone who is
more skilled, frequently an adult who
represents the culture in which the
child develops.
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  The child must be taught things which
are within his level of ability.
 SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY – focuses on
the interaction between the individual
and others in a social activity and how
individuals assimilate and internalize
cultural meanings.
Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories
B.F Skinner – Proponent of behaviorism and
Developed the concept of operant conditioning
Operant Conditioning
 A simple form of learning in which an
organism learns to engage in behavior
because it is enforced.
 The key aspect of development is
behavior, not thoughts and feelings.
 The use of reinforcements and
punishments shape development.
Types of Reinforcement:
Positive reinforcement – involves the
presentation of positive or desirable condition
to strengthen a behavior. Rewards
Other Examples of Positive Reinforcements
 Giving a child a compliment or candy for
a job well done.
 Getting paid for a completed task.
 Watching your favorite TV show after
doing all your homework.
 Dolphin gets a fish for doing a trick.
 Dog gets a treat for sitting, laying,
rolling over.
 Get a candy bar for putting money in
the machine.
Negative reinforcement –the removal of a
negative condition in order to strengthen a
behavior.
Examples:
Before heading out for a day at the beach, you
slather on sunscreen in order to avoid getting
sunburned.
On Monday morning, you leave the house early
in order to avoid getting stuck in traffic and
being late for class.
Other Examples of Negative Reinforcements
 Scratching an insect bite that itches
(reinforces scratching behavior by
removing itch)
 Rubbing itchy eyes (reinforces rubbing
behavior by removing itch)
 Daydreaming or doodling in boring class
(reinforces daydreaming behavior by
removing boredom).
 Studying when you worry about a test
(reinforces study behavior by reducing
worry).
Punishment – Involves either presenting or
taking away a stimulus in order to weaken a
behavior.
Other Examples of Positive Punishments
 Yelling “No!” at a dog jumping up on a
person.
 Spanking a child.
 Swatting a dog with a newspaper for
peeing on the carpet.
 A speeding ticket for speeding.
 Squirting a cat for eating the plants.
 Burning your hand when you touch a
hot stove.
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  Getting nauseous after eating rotten
food.
Other Examples of Negative Punishments
 Child has a toy taken away for fighting
with his sister.
 Teen is grounded for misbehavior.
 Dolphin trainer walks away with fish
bucket when the dolphin gets
aggressive.
 One person in a relationship stops
talking to the other in response to a
behavior.
Albert Bandura - American psychologist and
The leading architect of social cognitive theory
The Bobo Doll Experiment.
Basic concept of Bandura’s theory
SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY – holds that
behavior, environment and cognition are the
key factors in development.
Observational learning – also called as
imitation or modeling, is learning that occurs
when a person observes and imitates behavior.
Social Modeling
Four processes in observational learning
 Attention
 Retention
 Motor reproduction
 Reinforcement or incentive conditions
Moral Development of Theory
Lawrence Kohlberg – Proponent of moral
development theory and As the child grows up
into becoming an adult, he is ruled out by
certain “set of rules or ideals that guide him to
distinguish right from wrong. Kohlberg’s Moral
Development Theory.
Ethnological Theories
Konrad Lorens – European zoologist and His
best-known research is on the behavior of
greylag geese.
IMPRINTING - The rapid, innate learning that
involves attachment to the first moving object
seen.
John Bowlby – Bowlby stressed that attachment
of a caregiver over the first year of life has
important consequences throughout the
lifespan.
‘Strange Situation’ procedure by Ainsworth
and Bell (1970)
1. Mother, baby and experimenter (lasts
less than one minute).
2. Mother and baby alone.
3. Stranger joins mother and infant.
4. Mother leaves baby and stranger alone.
5. Mother returns and stranger leaves.
6. Mother leaves; infant left completely
alone.
7. Stranger returns.
8. Mother returns and stranger leaves.
Urie Brofenbrenner – Proponent of ecological
theory along with Morris
ECOLOGICAL THEORY – holds that development
reflects the influence of several environmental
systems.
 Microsystem
 Mesosystem
 Exosystem
 Macrosystem
 Chronosystem
Electic Theoretical Orientation - An orientation
that does not follow any one theoretical
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approach, but rather selects from each theory
whatever is considered the best in it.

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