lecture 1- approaches and themes in developmental psychology Flashcards
what is developmental psychology?
-most types of psychology tend to deal with static phenomena
-sort of cross sectional way to look at things
developmental psychology looks at change in -abilities
-structures
-in understanding
‘developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why human beings change over the course of their life’
example: short term memory
cognitive psychology example
-how many pieces of info can adults remember
-Muller magic number 5-9 pieces of information, we can usually remember this much info
-theoretical outcome - adults can rehearse and maintain 5-9 chunks of information
short term memory -how does it improve
Gathercole 1999 graph of short term memory performance
what does it show
between ages of 2-8 short term memory ability really improves
-measure performance change across age ranges
-linear increase from 1 and 2 years through 4 and 5 years onwards
how does the capapcity of stm change
capacity change?
-capacity of stm improves with cortical development
functional changes ?
-ease of operations increase available space
-children just get better at using what space is there
kind of a mix of these
developmental question :
how will it affect my child if I send her to school at 4 rather than 5?
-what determines school readiness
-intellect development determines school readiness, and it develops and awful lot ages 4-5
-social development also affects school readiness
-emotional development determines school readiness
-behavioural development
developmental question
-what do i need to do for my child to do well at school
list important factors
-genes (eg IQ)
-treatment by caregivers and choice of environments (eg parent attitudes : good attitude to school improves performance (Luster and McAdoo 1996)
, as do peers attitudes
difference of individual factors / different effect on children of similar experiences
-different motivational patterns…
Cain and Dweck 1995
- Cain and Dweck say different motivational patterns effect persistence
key issues in developmental psychology
continuity or discontinuity
-smooth curve or stages ?
Nature/nurture
-genes or environment?
Mechanisms of development
-what drives development?
Individual differences
-why doesn’t Andrew’s child do that
Continuity or Discontinuity
What shape does development take?
continuous- like plant growth - consistently grows and is a curve
discontinuous - butterfly development- has different stages of development eg like a caterpillar to butterfly
continuous development
example
-short term memory, digit span increases with age
-classic sloping line of development
discontinuous development
how is there discontinuous development in children?
development of thought
-stage development (eg., Piaget): Children are different kinds of thinkers at different stages of development
-he says there at least two stages of development that are related to particular ages , and children move from one stage to another
Nature/Nurture
biology and the environment
example : aggression
social learning
banduras bobo doll experiment
conditions
results
-in the experiment they have an adult go into a room where the child can see and there’s a doll and the adult attacks it.
-in one condition the adult attacks the doll and the child witnesses this
-in the other condition the adult doesn’t go and attack the doll
-finds that when the children that witnessed the first condition interacts with the doll they are more likely to be violent themselves
-demonstrates there’s an influence of aggression , children who see it are more likely to do it themselves
-an example of how environment can shape you
nature vs nurture
innate disposition ?
- Book et al 2001
- Ferguson 2010
book et al (2001) found a weak positive correlation between testosterone and aggression
remember that correlation doesn’t always mean causation
Ferguson (2010) found that 56% of the variance in aggression can be explained through genetic influences
Gene x environment
Caspi et al 2002
-explain the study
-iv / dv /
-argument is that genes and the environment interact to give a different response - both work together to give a response
longitudinal study of aggressive behaviour
-953 individuals followed from age 3 to 26 years old, tested at 2 year intervals
tested for
ivs
-environmental influences : evidence of maltreatment
-genetic influence (high or low monoamine oxidase - a activity (MAO-A activity) (mao-a responsible for breaking down monoamines in the brain (norepinephrine, dopamineetc)
outcomes (DVs) convictions , disposition toward violence and incidence of conduct disorders and anti social disorders
caspi et al 2002 study results
-maltreatment (treated poorly in the past) increased the chances of violent behaviour
-this was increased in the low maoa group
-low maoa and maltreated group - was accounted for 17% of the sample, but 44% of the groups violent crime
-argued this is a good example of how genes and environment interact
