Introduction and Studying Human Development

Question 1

fundamental distinctions in developmental theories

Answer 1

qualitative vs quantitative change
domain-general vs specific abilities
innate vs acquired abilities

Question 2

qualitative change

Answer 2

children think in fundamentally different ways over time by improving quality

Question 3

quantitative change

Answer 3

change in quantity of information that can be processed or knowledge you have available to you

Question 4

domain-general ability

Answer 4

• characterise broader patterns in development of behaviours
• factors that determine your performance in particular topic areas

Question 5

domain-specific

Answer 5

• focus on particular abilities/ behaviours with narrow effects, distinct from one another
• contributes to the variation between children

Question 6

innate abilities

Answer 6

early-developing, similar across children, contexts, and culture

Question 7

acquired abilities

Answer 7

• extended-over-time, with significant variation between children, contexts, and culture
• environment can influence change

Question 8

how did kamirloff-smith (2013) define developmental change?

Answer 8

“the process of change that occurs in human beings throughout development”

Question 9

what does developmental science aim to do?

Answer 9

1. describe developmental change (what develops and when)
2. explain developmental change (the mechanisms by which change occurs)
3. predict developmental outcomes

Question 10

The process of developmental science

Answer 10

1. Taking humans of different ages to observe their capabilities in a specific domain
2. we then understand the cognitive process that produced this progress
3. We can then predict developmental outcomes and interventions

Question 11

how can the nature of developmental change be seen?

Answer 11

examples of brain development
- growth and increase in folding of the brain (cachia, 2022)
- changes in synaptic connections (keil, 2014)
- changes in neuron structure and myelination (kulikova, 2016)

Question 12

changes in synaptic connection

Answer 12

-our peak synaptic connections are at around 8-10 months
- synaptic pruning occurs at 1 years old, where their density decreases because abilities stabilise over time to make processing become more efficient

Question 13

changes in neuron structure and myelination

Answer 13

• baby neurons dont have a myelin sheet , so info spreads slower
• dramatic increase of myelin after 1 month old, which insulates neurones to increase their efficiency of processing

Question 14

what does the nature of developmental change show?

Answer 14

psychological development is not a rigid concept, as complex changes occur across several different dimensions and cannot be equated with simple growth/increase

Question 15

what is studying development an insight into?

Answer 15

both the mature form and children’s capabilities, which allows for understanding into shaping social policy

Question 16

piaget (1896-1980)

Answer 16

• was interested in where knowledge comes from after observing common mistakes made by children during experimental tasks
• these mistakes clustered into certain age groups
• looking at children can answer how we develop as adults

Question 17

discoveries of piaget

Answer 17

• children’s thinking changes qualitatively with age through age/ developmental stages
• they are “little scientists” who actively construct knowledge by theories , testing and experience from the world around them

not entirely accurate, but still remains hugely inspiring for the field

Question 18

what does empiricism consider?

Answer 18

knowledge as built up by forming associations between the phenomena we experience, as newborns understand nothing due to lack of experience with the world

Question 19

What is the modern view of empiricism

Answer 19

• we have an all purpose learning system that connects things together as they appear together
• no biases
• present at birth
• we always use the same learning system

Question 20

empiricism is informed by…

Answer 20

locke, berkley, and hume

Question 21

what does nativism consider?

Answer 21

• some elements of the cognitive toolkit are provided by genetic inheritance
• there are specialised learning systems designed to process particular kinds of information

Question 22

nativism is informed by…

Answer 22

descartes and leibniz

Question 23

what do comparative and evolutionary perspectives believe?

Answer 23

different organisms experience similar challenges during development
- particular traits emerge through natural selection

Question 24

what do comparative and evolutionary perspectives allow for?

Answer 24

this allows for cross-species comparison to find out the origins of various psychological capabilities

Question 25

what do cross-cultural perspectives consider?

Answer 25

aspects of development which remain stable despite cultural differences, (e.g., visual depth, language development, or religious beliefs)

Question 26

what does neuroscience use?

Answer 26

EEG to observe how brain development guides or constrains psychological development, and how the nervous system/physiological changes as a result of experience

Question 27

methods to study developmental change

Answer 27

longitudinal cross-sectional sequential

Question 28

longitudinal approach

Answer 28

same group of people is studied repeatedly at various time points

Question 29

advantages of longitudinal approach

Answer 29

- powerful for establishing causality of earlier events and studying long-term effects (of training) - may uncover long-term patterns of change in individuals

Question 30

disadvantages of longitudinal approach

Answer 30

- time-consuming and participants may drop out during the process - effects of participating in the experiment rather than finding the natural course of development (practice effects)

Question 31

cross-sectional approach

Answer 31

different groups of people are studied at each age of interest

Question 32

advantages of cross- sectional approach

Answer 32

- reveals patterns for each age group - enables quick assessment of hypothesized differences between ages

Question 33

disadvantages of cross-sectional approach

Answer 33

- yields no information about causes of age-related changes this means we have no causality as we dont know what drives the changes we observe - different groups may be subject to cohort effects that impact performance (e.g. studying a 10yr old vs a 30yr old would have differences in growing up technology wise)

Question 34

sequential approach

Answer 34

combines both cross sectional and longitudinal designs which enables cross-cohort comparisons which allows age-related changes to be separated from changes by unique experiences of particular cohorts

Question 35

How does the sequential approach work

Answer 35

- As well as a longitudinal study we would add one more group of (e.g. two year olds,) - we compare them to the to two years olds measured earlier from the longitudinal design to see if there are any cohort effects