PSYCHOLOGY DEVELOPMENT MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE 2024
Developmental Science
An interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on the changes that children undergo from conception
onward.
Five periods:
The Prenatal Period (conception) to (birth)
Infancy (birth) to (age 2)
Early Childhood (age 2-6 )
Middle Childhood (age 6-12 )
Adolescence (age 12-18)
Domains of Development
1. Social
2. Emotional
3. Cognitive
4. Physical
Developmental Science
Goals:
- To understand the basic biological and cultural processes that account for the complexities of
development.
- Explain how children develop
- Extent to which biological factors and environmental factors contribute to a child’s acquisition of
different traits and abilities
2. To devise ways of safeguarding children’s health and well-being.
Who Benefits from Development Psychology?
1. Parents
2. Teachers and educators
3. Social policymakers
a. Benefit from research
b. Concern- obtaining eye witness testimony - 1000 testify in legal cases
c. Younger children are, more susceptible to leading questions
d. 3-5-year-old give accurate testimony
A historical Perspective
Childhood in Premodern Times
● Children had few rights
, ● Viewed as family possessions whom parents could exploit as saw fit
● Medieval law: children culpable for criminal offenses
Early Philosophical Perspectives:
● Issue: are children inherently good or bad?
● Hobbes (1651): original sin
○ Children inherently selfish; must be restrained by society
○ Actively control children into more susceptible outlets
■ Strict
● Rousseau (1752): innate purity
○ Children born with intuitive sense of right/wrong; often corrupted by society
○ Rather than strict rules- parents should give children freedom when interacting with
others
Early Philosophical Perspectives:
● Issue: Nature vs. nurture
● John Locke (1690): tabula rasa
○ Didn’t believe children were inherently bad or good
○ Nurture was key to a child’s development
● Children have no inborn tendencies; how they turn out depends entirely on experiences
● Parents can mould child in any way they wish
- Charles Darwin:
- Understood development of human species by studying child development
- Baby biography
- Detailed case studies of children’s behavior
- Published an article biographical sketch of the infant book
- Problem:
- Often based on single case; highly subjective
G. Stanley Hall – a founder of dev. psychology
- Identified normative, the average ages at which milestones happen
- EX. Average 6-month-old should be able to roll over and make repeated bable sounds
- When assessing sound- dr will have a long checklist - to make sure the child is
developing typically
- Identified adolescence as a unique phase
Recurring Themes of Development Science
1. Source of Development
○ Nature:
■ Refers to the individual’s inherited biological predisposition
○ Nurture:
, ■ Refers to the influences on the individual of the social and cultural environment
and of the individual’s experience
2. Plasticity
○ To what degree, and under what conditions, is development open to change and
intervention?
○ Critical Periods:
■ A period during which specific biological or environmental events are required
for normal development to occur.
■ E.g., imprinting
● As soon as young ducks hatch they will immediately follow their mother
around - allowing them to be fed, safe from danger
● If mother is absent- imprinting can occur- the mother-like figure will or
even a human
● When there is no mother- they won’t learn the behaviors
3. Continuity/ discontinuity
○ Continuous Development:
■ Involves gradual accumulation of small changes
● Quantitative Changes
○ Discontinuity:
■ Involves a series of abrupt, radical transformations
● Qualitative Changes
● Butterfly changes
***EX. 4-5 year-olds have many improbable beliefs (e.g., a person on TV could jump out into living
room)
***6-7 year-olds certain this couldn’t happen
4. Active vs. Passive
○ To what extent do children’s actions shape their development
■ Sue parents for having done a bad job raising them
■ Bad childhood- result of criminal behavior
● Does watch shows with aggressive behavior have an impact?
5. Individual differences
○ What combination of nature and nurture makes individuals different from one another?
■ Students act differently even if they were raised in the same house - they just
have different personalities
■ Twins are different due to Genetic differences due to mutation or treatment of
others and different choices of environment
○ To what extent are individual characteristics stable?
Case study: Genie
(Susan Whiley)
- Abusive father
STUDY GUIDE 2024
Developmental Science
An interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on the changes that children undergo from conception
onward.
Five periods:
The Prenatal Period (conception) to (birth)
Infancy (birth) to (age 2)
Early Childhood (age 2-6 )
Middle Childhood (age 6-12 )
Adolescence (age 12-18)
Domains of Development
1. Social
2. Emotional
3. Cognitive
4. Physical
Developmental Science
Goals:
- To understand the basic biological and cultural processes that account for the complexities of
development.
- Explain how children develop
- Extent to which biological factors and environmental factors contribute to a child’s acquisition of
different traits and abilities
2. To devise ways of safeguarding children’s health and well-being.
Who Benefits from Development Psychology?
1. Parents
2. Teachers and educators
3. Social policymakers
a. Benefit from research
b. Concern- obtaining eye witness testimony - 1000 testify in legal cases
c. Younger children are, more susceptible to leading questions
d. 3-5-year-old give accurate testimony
A historical Perspective
Childhood in Premodern Times
● Children had few rights
, ● Viewed as family possessions whom parents could exploit as saw fit
● Medieval law: children culpable for criminal offenses
Early Philosophical Perspectives:
● Issue: are children inherently good or bad?
● Hobbes (1651): original sin
○ Children inherently selfish; must be restrained by society
○ Actively control children into more susceptible outlets
■ Strict
● Rousseau (1752): innate purity
○ Children born with intuitive sense of right/wrong; often corrupted by society
○ Rather than strict rules- parents should give children freedom when interacting with
others
Early Philosophical Perspectives:
● Issue: Nature vs. nurture
● John Locke (1690): tabula rasa
○ Didn’t believe children were inherently bad or good
○ Nurture was key to a child’s development
● Children have no inborn tendencies; how they turn out depends entirely on experiences
● Parents can mould child in any way they wish
- Charles Darwin:
- Understood development of human species by studying child development
- Baby biography
- Detailed case studies of children’s behavior
- Published an article biographical sketch of the infant book
- Problem:
- Often based on single case; highly subjective
G. Stanley Hall – a founder of dev. psychology
- Identified normative, the average ages at which milestones happen
- EX. Average 6-month-old should be able to roll over and make repeated bable sounds
- When assessing sound- dr will have a long checklist - to make sure the child is
developing typically
- Identified adolescence as a unique phase
Recurring Themes of Development Science
1. Source of Development
○ Nature:
■ Refers to the individual’s inherited biological predisposition
○ Nurture:
, ■ Refers to the influences on the individual of the social and cultural environment
and of the individual’s experience
2. Plasticity
○ To what degree, and under what conditions, is development open to change and
intervention?
○ Critical Periods:
■ A period during which specific biological or environmental events are required
for normal development to occur.
■ E.g., imprinting
● As soon as young ducks hatch they will immediately follow their mother
around - allowing them to be fed, safe from danger
● If mother is absent- imprinting can occur- the mother-like figure will or
even a human
● When there is no mother- they won’t learn the behaviors
3. Continuity/ discontinuity
○ Continuous Development:
■ Involves gradual accumulation of small changes
● Quantitative Changes
○ Discontinuity:
■ Involves a series of abrupt, radical transformations
● Qualitative Changes
● Butterfly changes
***EX. 4-5 year-olds have many improbable beliefs (e.g., a person on TV could jump out into living
room)
***6-7 year-olds certain this couldn’t happen
4. Active vs. Passive
○ To what extent do children’s actions shape their development
■ Sue parents for having done a bad job raising them
■ Bad childhood- result of criminal behavior
● Does watch shows with aggressive behavior have an impact?
5. Individual differences
○ What combination of nature and nurture makes individuals different from one another?
■ Students act differently even if they were raised in the same house - they just
have different personalities
■ Twins are different due to Genetic differences due to mutation or treatment of
others and different choices of environment
○ To what extent are individual characteristics stable?
Case study: Genie
(Susan Whiley)
- Abusive father
