Boyd, D., & Bee, H. (2012). The Developing Child.

Chapter One

BASIC ISSUES IN THE STUDY OF

DEVELOPMENT
 Perspectives on Development

Psychologists as “parenting experts”

John B. Watson Benjamin Spock, M.D.

• Rigid feeding and toilet • No excessive demands on
training schedules children
• “Rigidity” ensures that • Reduced conflict over
children will become weaning and toilet training
emotionally “hard”
Nature versus Nurture
 Nature versus Nurture

G. Stanley Hall
– Milestones and identify norms

John Watson
– Behaviorism
Continuity-Discontinuity Issue

Continuity
• Quantitative change
• Change in amount

Discontinuity
• Stages of development
• Qualitative change
• Change in kind or types
Internal and External Influences

Maturation
– Genetically programmed sequential patterns of
change
• Universal

Sequential
• Relatively impervious to environmental
influences
Internal and External Influences

Timing of Experience
– Experience may be needed to trigger genetic
programs

Critical periods
• Goslings and imprinting: When goslings become
attached to and follow their mother (Lorenz)

Sensitive periods
• A time when a particular experience can be best
incorporated into the maturational process
Internal and External Influences

Behavior Genetics:
– Study of genetic contributions to behavior or traits,
e.g., intelligence, personality
– Heredity affects a broad range of behaviors
• Height, body shape, tendency towards obesity
• General intelligence
• Spatial visual ability
• Alcoholism, schizophrenia, depression
• Temperament—emotionality, activity, sociability
Internal and External Influences

Gene-Environment Interaction
Child’s genetic heritage may
predict something about
environment

Heritage may affect the way a

child behaves with other people

Children’s interpretations of their

experiences are influenced by
genetic tendencies
Internal and External Influences

Internal Models of Experience: A set of core

ideas about the world, himself/herself,
relationships with others through which all
subsequent experiences are filtered

Aslin’s Model of Environmental Influence: 5

models of possible gene-environment interaction

Let’s take a look!

Aslin’s Models of Environmental Influence
 The Ecological Perspective

Ecology: Context in which each child develops

– Urie Bronfenbrenner
• Children are raised in a complex social ecology

Individualism: World is made up of independent people whose

achievements and responsibilities are individual not collective

Collectivism: Emphasis on group identity, sharing, and group

decision-making
 Vulnerability and Resilience

Vulnerabilities
– Difficult temperament, physical abnormalities, allergies,
alcoholism
Protective factors
– High intelligence, good coordination, easy
temperament, nice smile
Facilitative environments encourage
development
Resilience
– Children high in protective factors show resilience,
even in difficult environments
Horowitz’s Model of Vulnerability
and Resilience
Helping Children Who are Afraid to Go to
School

How could systematic desensitization be

used to help a child who was bitten by a dog
overcome her subsequent fear of all dogs?

What actions on the part of parents,

teachers, or peers might prevent a child with
school refusal from benefiting from
systematic desensitization?
 Age-Related Change

Normative age-graded: Common to every

species member

Normative history-graded: Historical forces that

affect each generation somewhat differently

Non-normative (individual differences): Result

from unique, unshared events
 Theories of Development

Psychoanalytic Theories: Behavior is

governed by unconscious as well as
conscious processes.
– Sigmund Freud
– Concepts
– Personality structures
– Psychosexual stages
 Psychoanalytic Theories

Eric Erikson
– Concepts

– Psychosocial stages
 Cognitive-Developmental and
Information-Processing Theory

Jean Piaget: Nature of the human organism is to

adapt to its environment

– Concepts

– Stage theory of cognitive development

 Cognitive-Developmental and
Information-Processing Theory

Lev Vygotsky: Complex forms of thinking have their

origins in social interactions

– Scaffolding

– Zone of Proximal Development

 Cognitive-Developmental and
Information-Processing Theory

Information Processing Theory

– Models

– Concepts

– Memory
The Information Processing System
 Learning Theory

Classical Conditioning: Ivan Pavlov

– Concepts

Operant Conditioning: B.F. Skinner

– Concepts
 Learning Theory

Social Cognitive Theory: Albert Bandura

– Observational learning or modeling

– Intrinsic reinforcement
 Comparing Theories

Assumptions
• Active or passive?
• Nature or nurture?
• Stability or change?

Usefulness
• Generate predictions?
• Heuristic value?
• Practical value?
 Eclectic Approach

Use of multiple theoretical perspectives to

explain and study human development
 Questions to Ponder

Examine your own childhood:

– What are three influential factors from your

childhood environment that helped to shape who
you are today?

– What are three important biological or genetic

traits that helped to shape who you are today?
 Research Designs
and Methods

Four goals for the scientific study of human

development
 Age-Related Changes

Cross-Sectional Designs
Useful

Expedient

Provide indications of possible age

differences or age changes
 Age-Related Changes

Longitudinal Designs
Consistencies or changes in behavior across
age

Comparison of individual differences and

group differences
 Age-Related Changes

Sequential Designs
Comparison of cohorts

Individual differences
A Hypothetical Sequential Study
 Identifying Relationships Between
Variables

Naturalistic Case Studies

Observations • In-depth examinations
of single individuals
• Observations in normal • Useful in making
environments decisions about
• Observer bias individuals
• Limited generalizability • Frequently the basis of
important hypotheses
about unusual
developmental events
 Identifying Relationships Between
Variables

Correlations Positive correlation

• Number ranging from • High scores on one

• -1.00 to +1.00 variable are usually
accompanied by high
• Describes the scores on the other
strength of a
relationship between
two variables Negative correlation

• Two variables that move

in opposite directions
 Limits of Correlations

 They do not reveal causal relationships

 One variable cannot tell us if one causes
the other to occur
 Experiments

Control Group
• Dependent variable

Experimental Group
• Independent variable

Quasi-experiments
• No random assignment
 Cross-Cultural Research

Ethnography
• Extensive study of one culture based on
observation
 Research Ethics

Protection of animal rights and human

subjects
Research Method Summary
Research Method Summary