Chapter 1: Theories of Child Development and Research Methods Flashcards

1
Q

Reasons to study Child Development

A

Answers questions about raising children, Helps choose social policies, Understand human nature, Reach children at risk (low socioeconomic status)

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2
Q

Hobbes’ Theory of Children

A

Children are inherently selfish and need control

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3
Q

Rousseau’s Theory of Children

A

Children are innately pure and are corrupted by society, freedom from an early age; Plato, Nativist

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4
Q

Locke’s Theory of Children

A

“Tabula Rasa” - the child is malleable by society, discipline from an early age; Aristotle, Empiricist

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5
Q

Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

A

Stages of development can be hit or missed, and each one directly affects future mental health; basis of psychodynamic therapy

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6
Q

Watson and Skinner’s View

A

Behaviorism; any child can be shaped to be anything (equipotentiality)

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7
Q

Nativism

A

You are what you are; your nature takes precedent.

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8
Q

Plato’s Beliefs

A

Emphasized self-control and discipline, believed in innate knowledge

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9
Q

Aristotle’s Beliefs

A

Case-based approach, believed in experience based knowledge

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10
Q

Empiricism

A

Experience shapes who you are; nurture takes precedent

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11
Q

Epigenetics

A

Behaviors and environment can affect the expression of your genes, causing the same genetic code to express different traits in different people

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12
Q

Kagan’s Innate Moral Sense

A

All children have five abilities from birth: Infer thoughts and feelings of others, apply concepts of good and bad on behavior, reflect on past actions, understand that negative consequences can and should be avoided, and understand motives and emotions

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13
Q

Darwin’s Theory

A

Evolutionary; wrote the “baby biography” which was the first study of child development, still guides modern day research

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14
Q

Modern theory of Child Development

A

A mix of nativism, empiricism, and epigenetics, with emphasis on observing children in social situations (with peers, teachers, family, etc.)

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15
Q

What is Nature

A

Experience-Independent change (does not require outside influence)

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16
Q

Examples of nature

A

Genetic factors (eye color, chromosomes, etc.), Maturational timetables, Hormonal changes, Reflexes, Instincts

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17
Q

What is Nurture

A

Experience-dependent change (relies on external input)

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18
Q

Examples of Nurture

A

Environmental factors (native language, prenatal toxins, etc.), Learning, Effects of Experience (food preferences, racism, etc.)

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19
Q

Largest Social Reform in Child Development Studies

A

The Industrial Revolution (1700s - 1900s); in response to child labor

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20
Q

7 Basic Themes of Child Development

A

Interaction between Nature and Nurture, The Active Child shapes their own development, Continuity/Discontinuity of development, Mechanisms of change (how does change occur), Sociocultural Context and how it influences development, Individual differences, Research and Children’s Wellfare

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21
Q

Behaviors that stem from Nature/Nurture interactions

A

Language (human ability/culture specific), food aversions (adaptive for different species/conditionable response), Duckling imprinting (critical period for imprinting ability/amount of effort exerted by the duckling), Bird-song (always produce a song/culturally ‘taught’ the correct song)

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22
Q

Big Questions of Developmental Psychology

A

What causes individual differences? Does everything change/develop? What is the shape of change?

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23
Q

Competence vs. Performance

A

Knowing something vs. showing that knowledge

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24
Q

Romanian Adoption Study

A

Children with severe neglect were adopted at young ages into caring homes; most children recovered but still retained some issues with language and brain development. RESULT: atypical social development persists into adulthood

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25
Q

The Active Child

A

Children shape their own development by engaging with their environment. Talking and playing by themselves facilitates learning of social skills and emotional development.

26
Q

Selective Attention

A

Pay more attention to things that move or make sound; used by the active child to perceive/learn from their environment, and in preferential looking studies

27
Q

Continuous development

A

Small progressive changes over time

28
Q

Discontinuous development

A

Sudden large changes (like stepping stones or stairs)

29
Q

Mechanisms of Change

A

Looking for defining mechanisms that produce a precise account of a process which produces the outcome of interest (can be behavioral, neural, or genetic)

30
Q

Effortful attention

A

Voluntary control of one’s emotions and thoughts

31
Q

Physiological mechanism of effortful attention

A

Connection between the limbic area, the anterior cingulate, and the prefrontal cortex

32
Q

Genetic mechanism of effortful attention

A

Variation in genes that promote neurotransmitters crucial to effortful attention

33
Q

Experiential mechanism of effortful attention

A

Learning and training effortful attention changes expression of that trait

34
Q

Sociocultural context

A

Physical, social, cultural, economic, and historical circumstances that can influence a child’s development; all aspects interact with each other to produce the context/environment

35
Q

Scarr’s 4 factors of variability (Lead to individual differences)

A

Genetic differences, difference in treatment by others, difference in reactions to similar experiences, different choices of environment

36
Q

Feasibility of Research

A

Is the experiment ethically possible to do in real life?

37
Q

Challenges of Developmental Studies

A

It is hard to work with children, and it is hard to study change

38
Q

The Scientific Method

A

All beliefs are hypothesis until repeatedly tested until proven right or wrong

39
Q

Reliability

A

Degree of consistency in an experiment

40
Q

Interrater reliability

A

Results are consistent between raters

41
Q

Test-retest reliability

A

Consistent results when test is repeated

42
Q

Validity

A

Success of measuring the point of interest in an experiment (measures what is meant to be measured)

43
Q

Internal validity

A

Effects can be confidently attributed to the tested factor (change is actually caused by the independent variable)

44
Q

External validity

A

Generalizability

45
Q

Naturalistic Observation

A

Observing behavior in a natural environment to show interaction between a child and their environment; strong in ecological validity but at risk of unreliability of measurements

46
Q

Limits to naturalistic observation

A

too many features observed to successfully draw conclusions (can only draw relationships); behaviors of interest only occur occasionally; uncontrollable environment (not a lab); people behave differently when they know they are being observed

47
Q

Bell and Ainsworth study

A

Observed parental response to crying in people’s homes. Longitudinal, not cause determining. Found that frequent response parents had infants who cried less

48
Q

Hubbard and Van Ijzendoorn study

A

Studied parental response to crying over 12 visits at 3 week intervals. Found unresponsiveness to crying was related to less crying in infants within the first 9 weeks. More controlled than Bell and Ainsworth

49
Q

Interview Method

A

Sets of predetermined questions administered to participants. Systematic, one-on-one, good for individualistic data. Eliminates bias of researcher. More standardized/structured, gives more reliable data.

50
Q

Limits to Interview Method

A

Answers from participants can be biased, not generalizable to other children

51
Q

Clinical interview

A

Diverting from the standard/set questions of interview method to follow the child’s lead

52
Q

Experimental Method/Structured Observation

A

Situations designed to elicit desired/relevant behavior/ Independent and dependent variables. Can make causal conclusions. All children experience the same event.

53
Q

Limits of experimental method

A

Cannot randomly assign age to developmental studies; not very generalizable (low in ecological validity); subject/sample size can affect generalizability

54
Q

Ecological validity

A

Seeing the world/environment from the perspective of the subject

55
Q

Mean Monkey Experiment

A

Researcher used monkey puppet to study deception skills in children. The monkey will always pick the sticker the child wants. Independent variable = age of child. Dependent variable = which sticker the child told the monkey they wanted/do they lie to the monkey to get the desired outcome
Found deception skills develop around age 4

56
Q

Longitudinal Study Design

A

Collect data from the same participants over a period of time; observing changes and continuities.

57
Q

Correlation

A

Value between -1.0 and 1.0 that describes the relationship between two variables. Does not equate to causality

58
Q

Correlational Designs

A

Determine if one variable causes predictable difference in another variable; used when random assignment is not possible or variable is not controllable

59
Q

Cross-sectional Study Design

A

Collect data from different participants across an age range; usually the chosen method for most developmental studies; more practical

60
Q

Limits of Longitudinal Design

A

Participants can drop out midway; repetition of studies can affect measurements of the dependent variable; not always practical

61
Q

Microgenetic study design

A

In-depth depiction of processes that produce change; lots of tests of the same participants over a short time span. Used when a basic pattern is known, but the underlying process is not

62
Q

Research Ethics with Developmental Research

A

Children are a part of a protected population, and it is the researcher’s duty to minimize the amount of harm that could befall a child participant as much as possible during an experiment