Lecture 1 Introduction & how to study human development
Content lecture
- Reasons to learn about development
- Philosophical issues in the study of development
- Themes in development
- Methods for studying development
Reasons to learn about development
Raising children
- Application of child-development research
Improve child rearing across settings and caregivers
Example: helping children control their anger; spanking
Build empathy for diverse populations of children
Example: understanding children and families who face stressful or extreme
circumstance
Choosing social policies
- Knowledge of child development can facilitate policy decisions
- Examples
Preschool children’s responses to leading interview questions and their accurate
testimonies in court
Playing violent video games and increased aggressive behaviour in children and
adolescents
Understanding human nature
- Development research contributes to understanding human nature
When does learning start?
Can detrimental effects of early rearing be overcome?
What contributes to differences among children in social and cognitive development?
Nativists
Empiricists
1
,Romanian adoption study
- Timing of children’s experiences in Romanian orphanages influenced their development
Age of adoption influenced physical, intellectual, and social development
Atypical intellectual and social development were accompanied by abnormal brain
activity
Prefrontal cortex; amygdala
- Adoptive families made a positive difference
Philosophical issues in the study of development
Philosophical view of development
- From ancient Greece to today, profound thinkers studied and wrote about children and
development
Goals were similar
To help people become better parents
To improve children’s well-being
To understand human nature
- Philosophers
Provided insights about critical issues in child rearing
Methods were unscientific
- Both Plato and Aristotle
Believed that the long-term welfare of society depended on children being raised
properly
Approaches differ
Plato vs. Aristotle
- Aristotle - Plato
Was concerned with fitting child Emphasized self-control and
rearing to the needs of the discipline
individual child Believed that children are born
Believed that knowledge comes with innate knowledge
from experience
Later philosophers
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau - John Locke
Argues that parents and society Saw child as a tabula rasa and
should give the child maximum advocated first instilling
freedom from the beginning discipline, then gradually
increasing the child’s freedom
Darwin’s theory of evolution
2
, - Darwin
Baby biography as one of the first methods for studying children
Theory of evolution still influences current developmental research:
Attachment to mothers
Innate fears
Sex differences
Aggression and altruism
Learning mechanisms
Themes in understanding development
Basic questions about development
1. How do nature and nurture together shape development? (Nature and nurture)
2. How do children shape their own development? (The active child)
3. In what ways is development continuous, and in what ways is it discontinuous?
(Continuity/discontinuity)
4. How does change occur? (Mechanisms of change)
5. How does the sociocultural context influence development? (The sociocultural context)
6. How do children become so different from one another? (Individual differences)
7. How can research promote children’s well-being? (Research and children’s welfare)
1. How nature and nurture shape development
- Nurture = environment
Nature/genome = individual’s complete set of hereditary information
- All human characteristics are created through interaction of genes and environment
- How does this interaction shape development?
Genetic relatedness and schizophrenia
- Bidirectional interaction of nature and nurture
- Schizophrenia: family and twin studies
- Adoption research
- Epigenetic studies on methylation
2. Children shape their own development
- Newborns
Prefer things that move and make sounds; pay particular attention to mother’s face
- Toddlers (1-2 years)
Internally motivated to learn and practice talking; use self-speech
- Young children
Engage in internally motivated play, fantasy play, and dramatic play to support their
development
- Older children
Use more organized, rule-bound play to enhance self-control and social development
3
, The active child: play
- Children contribute to their own development from early in life, and their contributions
increase as they grow older
- Three of the most important contributions during children’s first years
Attentional patterns
Use of language
Play
- Older children and adolescents choose environments, friends, and activities themselves; their
choices impact their future
3. Continuous or discontinuous development
- Discontinuous - Continuous
Changes with age include Changes with age occur
occasional large shifts gradually, in small increments
Qualitative differences occur Development occurs skill by skill
Piaget, Freud, Erikson, and and task by task
Kohlberg were stage theorists
Conservation of quantity
- Children’s behaviour on this task is often used to exemplify the idea that development is
discontinuous
Continuous and discontinuous growth
- Changes in height can be viewed as either continuous or discontinuous
- Whether development is fundamentally continuous or discontinuous depends on how you
look at it and how often
4. Mechanisms / processes: how change occurs
- Interaction of genome and environment determines what and when changes occur
Rothbart-Lee and colleagues: effortful attention research
Specific genes influenced production of key neurotransmitters associated with
variations in effortful attention
Rueda and colleagues: effortful attention training
- Training experience influenced brain processes and gene expression through improved test
performance
- Changing role of sleep in promoting learning and generalizations
5. Influence of sociocultural context on development
- Sociocultural context
Influences every aspect of children’s development
4
Content lecture
- Reasons to learn about development
- Philosophical issues in the study of development
- Themes in development
- Methods for studying development
Reasons to learn about development
Raising children
- Application of child-development research
Improve child rearing across settings and caregivers
Example: helping children control their anger; spanking
Build empathy for diverse populations of children
Example: understanding children and families who face stressful or extreme
circumstance
Choosing social policies
- Knowledge of child development can facilitate policy decisions
- Examples
Preschool children’s responses to leading interview questions and their accurate
testimonies in court
Playing violent video games and increased aggressive behaviour in children and
adolescents
Understanding human nature
- Development research contributes to understanding human nature
When does learning start?
Can detrimental effects of early rearing be overcome?
What contributes to differences among children in social and cognitive development?
Nativists
Empiricists
1
,Romanian adoption study
- Timing of children’s experiences in Romanian orphanages influenced their development
Age of adoption influenced physical, intellectual, and social development
Atypical intellectual and social development were accompanied by abnormal brain
activity
Prefrontal cortex; amygdala
- Adoptive families made a positive difference
Philosophical issues in the study of development
Philosophical view of development
- From ancient Greece to today, profound thinkers studied and wrote about children and
development
Goals were similar
To help people become better parents
To improve children’s well-being
To understand human nature
- Philosophers
Provided insights about critical issues in child rearing
Methods were unscientific
- Both Plato and Aristotle
Believed that the long-term welfare of society depended on children being raised
properly
Approaches differ
Plato vs. Aristotle
- Aristotle - Plato
Was concerned with fitting child Emphasized self-control and
rearing to the needs of the discipline
individual child Believed that children are born
Believed that knowledge comes with innate knowledge
from experience
Later philosophers
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau - John Locke
Argues that parents and society Saw child as a tabula rasa and
should give the child maximum advocated first instilling
freedom from the beginning discipline, then gradually
increasing the child’s freedom
Darwin’s theory of evolution
2
, - Darwin
Baby biography as one of the first methods for studying children
Theory of evolution still influences current developmental research:
Attachment to mothers
Innate fears
Sex differences
Aggression and altruism
Learning mechanisms
Themes in understanding development
Basic questions about development
1. How do nature and nurture together shape development? (Nature and nurture)
2. How do children shape their own development? (The active child)
3. In what ways is development continuous, and in what ways is it discontinuous?
(Continuity/discontinuity)
4. How does change occur? (Mechanisms of change)
5. How does the sociocultural context influence development? (The sociocultural context)
6. How do children become so different from one another? (Individual differences)
7. How can research promote children’s well-being? (Research and children’s welfare)
1. How nature and nurture shape development
- Nurture = environment
Nature/genome = individual’s complete set of hereditary information
- All human characteristics are created through interaction of genes and environment
- How does this interaction shape development?
Genetic relatedness and schizophrenia
- Bidirectional interaction of nature and nurture
- Schizophrenia: family and twin studies
- Adoption research
- Epigenetic studies on methylation
2. Children shape their own development
- Newborns
Prefer things that move and make sounds; pay particular attention to mother’s face
- Toddlers (1-2 years)
Internally motivated to learn and practice talking; use self-speech
- Young children
Engage in internally motivated play, fantasy play, and dramatic play to support their
development
- Older children
Use more organized, rule-bound play to enhance self-control and social development
3
, The active child: play
- Children contribute to their own development from early in life, and their contributions
increase as they grow older
- Three of the most important contributions during children’s first years
Attentional patterns
Use of language
Play
- Older children and adolescents choose environments, friends, and activities themselves; their
choices impact their future
3. Continuous or discontinuous development
- Discontinuous - Continuous
Changes with age include Changes with age occur
occasional large shifts gradually, in small increments
Qualitative differences occur Development occurs skill by skill
Piaget, Freud, Erikson, and and task by task
Kohlberg were stage theorists
Conservation of quantity
- Children’s behaviour on this task is often used to exemplify the idea that development is
discontinuous
Continuous and discontinuous growth
- Changes in height can be viewed as either continuous or discontinuous
- Whether development is fundamentally continuous or discontinuous depends on how you
look at it and how often
4. Mechanisms / processes: how change occurs
- Interaction of genome and environment determines what and when changes occur
Rothbart-Lee and colleagues: effortful attention research
Specific genes influenced production of key neurotransmitters associated with
variations in effortful attention
Rueda and colleagues: effortful attention training
- Training experience influenced brain processes and gene expression through improved test
performance
- Changing role of sleep in promoting learning and generalizations
5. Influence of sociocultural context on development
- Sociocultural context
Influences every aspect of children’s development
4
