Developmental Psychology Flashcards
Developmental psychology examines:
Developmental psychology examines biological, physical, psychological and behavioural changes that occur throughout life.
- Developmental psychology is about how humans change and stay the same across the lifespan.
- We recognise that humans are actively engaged in shaping their own environments and develop through interaction with others and the environment.
What are the three domains of development?
Physical (including neural); Cognitive (including intellectual); Social (including emotional). These are INTERDEPENDENT domains - changes in one likely to cause changes in others.
Developmental Issues/Methods? (5)
Nature vs. nurture; Sensitive and critical periods; Stability vs. change; Continuity vs. discontinuity; Normative vs. non-normative events.
Explain: Nature vs. Nurture
To what extent is our development the product of heredity (nature) and of environment (nurture)? How do nature and nurture interact?
Explain/define: Sensitive / critical periods
A sensitive period is an optimal age range for certain experiences, but if those experiences occur at another time, normal development is still possible.
A critical period is an age range during which certain experiences must occur for development to proceed normally or along a certain path
Explain: Continuity vs. discontinuity
Is development continuous and gradual - as when a sapling grows into a tree, or is it discontinuous - progressing through qualitatively distinct stages, like a caterpillar > cocoon > butterfly?
Explain: Stability vs. change
How consistent are our characteristics as we age? Do extremely inhibited infants develop into extremely inhibited adults or do they become less shy over time?
Change can refer to the acquisition or the loss of a behaviour or function.
Change can occur as:
- Continuous - refers to a gradual alteration of behaviour; or
- Discontinuous - refers to stages of growth that are qualitatively differend and that are usually ordered in a fixed sequence.
Explain: Normative versus non-normative events. Esp: Age-related normative events
Age-related normative events are those that most people experience at particular ages in the life span. Non-normative events are atypical or unexpected, such as a natural disaster or the death of a parent. They potentially alter a person’s developmental trajectory.
What is a cross-sectional research design?
Cross-sectional designs compare people of different ages at the same point in time. AKA ‘snapshot’ design. Widely used - data from many age groups can be collected relatively quickly - however information can be skewed, as the (age-group) cohorts have grown up in different historical periods, ultimately affecting data relating to developmental psych.
What is a longitudinal research design?
A longitudinal design repeatedly tests the same cohort as it grows older. Can be time-consuming and unreliable (participants leaving study, passing away, etc).
What is a sequential design?
A combination of the cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs. Used to gain more comprehensive data, but can be costly and time-consuming.
Explain: Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory; name the 5 interconnected systems
Relationships between and individual and their environment are bi-directional (meaning: your world shapes who you become but you also shape the world around you).
Name/define: Bronfenbrenner’s 5 interconnected systems (ecological systems theory)
Microsystem: the most immediate surroundings, for example, family, friends and teachers. Mesosystem: reflects relations between microsystems, for example, the connection between home and workplace. Exosystem: comprises social settings that affect the individual without them playing an active role, for example, workplace policies. Macrosystem: operates at the outer level of ecology, for example, laws and cultural values. Chronosystem: environmental changes that occur over an individual’s lifetime (i.e. time).
Explain: Critical periods of development;
Define: Maturation
The critical period concept suggest that the brain is set to acquire a function during a limit period of time. If key experiences do not ocur during a critical period, the function may not develop or may not be fully developed.
Maturation refers to biologically based changes that follow an orderly sequence.
Differences in developmental trajectories - define Quantitative and Qualitative differences (give examples)
Quantitative differences - ex: individuals with a developmental delay or intellectual disability usually go through same stages of development [as other children], but at a slower pace.
Qualititative differences - ex: individuals with autism spectrum disorders develop social and emotional skills quite differently than normally-developing peers.
Name: the periods of developement and their time frames (years)
Explain/define: Active Thinking: Piaget’s stage model
What is: Contructivism
Schemas - organised patterns of thoughts and action. We aquire new schemas and our existing schemas become more complex.
Assimilation - the process by which new experiences are incorporated into existing schemas
Accommodation - the process by which new experiences cause existing schemas to change
Disequilibrium - an imbalance between existing schemas and new exper
Constructivism: Through engaging with the world and things in it, children come to construct schema - mental representations that help us understand how the world works. (Jean Piaget).
Cognition refers to:
…to mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating.
What are the four stages (names) of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development? Describe stage, typical age range and developmental phenomena
Sensorimotor (birth to nearly 2 years) - experiencing the world through sense and actions (looking, touching, mouthing). Developmental Phenomena: Object permanence; stranger anxiety.
Preoperational (about 2 to 6 years) - representing things with words and images but lacking logical reasoning. DP: Pretend play; egocentrism; language development.
Concrete operational (about 7 to 11 years) - thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arthmetical operations. DP: Conservation; mathematical transformations.
Formal operational (about 12 through adulthood) - abstract reasoning. DP: Abstract logic; potential for moral reasoning.
What is object permanence?
The awareness that hings continue to exist even when not perceived.
Stage 1 (sensorimotor) of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
What is egocentrism?
- The inability of the preoperational child to take another’s point of view.
- The pre-school child cannot assume the role of another person or recognise that other view points exist.
Stage 2 (preoperational) of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development