Chapter 1
Scope and methods of developmental
psychology
‘Folk’ theories of development: Ideas held about development that are not based upon
scientific investigation.
● Spare the rod and spoil the child: Children need to be punished in order to develop
as pleasant.
● All sweetness and light: Like begets like: Children are born good → punishment is
unnecessary and harmful.
Defining development according to world views
Organismic worldview: Idea that people are inherently active and continually interacting
with the environment → help shape their own development.
Mechanistic worldview: Idea that a person can be presented like a machine → inherently
passive until stimulated by the environment.
Ways of studying development
Designs for studying age-related changes
Cross-sectional designs: Observing children of different ages at a single point in time.
Longitudinal designs: Observing the same group of children more than one time at
different points in their development. Allows to asses within-person changes and
between-person differences.
● High costs
● Time-consuming
● High dropout rate
● Difficult to schedule repeated visits
● Children might get better over age → more practice on tasks given.
Difference two designs: Researchers try to obtain information form both designs →
sometimes not similar results.
● Time between measures: Important to pick a good interval of testing → transition
points for changes in performance have to be captured.
● Cohort effects: When there are changes across generations in the characteristics
one is interested in.
○ Height: Average height has risen.
○ Attitudes: Now different attitudes toward homosexuality.
○ Intelligence: Flynn-effect.
Microgenetic methods: Examines change as it occurs and involves individual children
being tested repeatedly overiod of time.
Sequential designs: Combination of longitudinal designs and cross-sectional designs that
examines the development of individuals from different age cohorts.
,Research methods
Observational studies: Behavior observed and recorded → no influencing behavior.
● Baby biographies: Diaries detailing an infant’s development, kept by parents.
○ Problems of generalisation
○ Unsystematic
○ Detailed
● Time sampling: Records an individual’s behavior at frequent intervals of time.
○ May not be accurate
○ Behaviors of interest may simply not occur
● Event sampling: Records what happens during particular events.
● Clinical method: Natural behavior is observed and then the environment is changed
in order to understand better the behavior of interest.
Experimental studies: Control an individual’s environment in systematic ways in an attempt
to identify which variables influence the behavior of interest.
Psychological testing: Use of instruments for the quantitative assessment of some
psychological attribute or attributes of a person.
Correlational studies: +1 positive relationship, -1 negative relationships, 0 no relationship.
● Concurrent studies: When interested in the relationship between variables that are
measured at the same time → measuring IQ of identical twins.
● Predictive studies: When interested in finding whether individuals retain their
relative standing or rank order relative to others over time → can we predict IQ in
3-year-olds from problem-solving in infancy?
Imaging methods: Methods of recording brain activity.
● Electroencephalogram (EEG): Scalp recording done with electrodes that measure
electrical activity produced by neurons.
● Event-related potential (ERP): Scalp recordings in which brain activity is monitored
during the presentation of specific perceptual events.
● Positron emission tomography (PET): Measures cortival activity by measuring
blood flow to tissues in the body → blood flow localised to regions of high activity with
radioactive isotope.
● Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): Measures cortival activity by
measuring blood flow and involves no invasive procedures.
Developmental functions
Typical trends in development → more intelligent as we age.
Continuous function - increasing ability: Behavior that improves with age.
Continuous function - decreasing ability: Behavior that gets worse as we age.
Discontinuous function: Development takes place in a series of stagers → each new stage
appears to be qualitatively different from the preceding stages.
U-shaped function:Behavior where ability is initially very good then decreases and then
increases again.
● Inverted u-shape: bad → increases → good → decreases → bad again.
It can be useful to plot more than one developmental function on the same graph → possible
causal relationships may be suggested by doing so.
, Chapter 2
Theories and issues in child development
Motor development
Maturational theories (Gesell): States that motor development proceeds from the global to
the specific in two directions. Development is controlled by a maturational timetable linked
particularly to the central nervous system and also to muscular development.
● Cephalocaudal trend: Development that proceeds form head to foot along the
length of the body.
● Proximodistal trend: Development of motor control in infancy which is from the
centre of the body outwards to more peripheral segments.
Criticism by McGraw, she tested twins where one member of each pair received enriched
motor training and found that development in that twin was accelerated.
Dynamic systems theory (DST): A dynamic and continual interaction of 1. Nervous system
2. Capabilities and biomechanics of the body 3. Environmental constraints and support.
● Thelen: Showed ability of infants to change their pattern of interlimb coordination to
solve an imposed task.
● Thelen:Found that infants need a stable posture before they can learn new motor
skills, through developing existing abilities.
● Adolph: Found that infants don’t understand their own abilities and have the dynamic
flexibility to adjust their abilities.
Cognitive development
Piaget’s theory of development: Children learn to adapt to their environments and as a
result of their cognitive adaptations → developing cognitive awareness of the world → they
become better able to understand their world.
● Four stages of cognitive development:
○ Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years): Thought is primarily based on perception
and action and internalised thinking is largely absent.
■ Object permanence: Notion that things continue to exist when they
are out of sight.
○ Preoperational stage (2-7 years): Children lack the logical framework for
thought.
■ Egocentric: Difficulty seeing things form another’s point of view.
■ Animism: Tendency to attribute life and life qualities to inanimate
objects.
■ Conservation task: Different shapes of glasses still have same
volume → they don’t understand this yet.
○ Concrete operations stage (7-11 years): Reasoning becomes more logical,
systematic and rational.
■ Centration: Centering attention on one aspect of a situation to the
exclusion of others.
, ■ Conservation tasks: Different shapes of glasses but same volume →
now they do understand.
○ Formal operations stage (11+ years): Acquiring the capacity for abstract
scientific thought.
Assimilation: Fitting knowledge into preexisting schemes.
Accommodation: Modify preexisting schemes for new experiences.
Information processing approaches
View that cognitive processes are explained in terms of inputs and outputs and that the
human mind is a computer through which information flows.
● Cognitive development in infancy: Proceeds in bottom-up fashion and building
complex systems of knowledge form simpler origins → infants can perceive separate
components but not the whole.
● Cognitive development in childhood: They learn to determine which strategy to
use to solve particular problems → experience makes this easier.
● Connectionism and brain development:
○ Connectionist models: Modern theoretical approach that developed from
information processing accounts in which computers are programmed to
stimulate the action of the brain and neurons.
○ Methods for recording brain activity in infants and children.
Social-cognitive development
Social constructivism (Vygotsky): Social interaction plays a fundamental role in cognitive
development.
● Zone of proximal development: Distance between the actual developmental level
and the level of potential development.
Classical conditioning (Pavlov): Eliciting behaviors by neutral stimuli, because of its
learned association with a more powerful stimulus.
● Experiment with dogs, food and a bell → salivating when hearing the bell.
Law of effect (Thorndike): Consequences (reward or punishment) of behavior guide future
behavior.
● Law of recency: More likely to repeat recent behavior.
● Law of exercise: Practice strengthens stimulus-response connections.
Operant conditioning (Skinner): Training by reinforcing (adding) desired behavior and
punishing (removing) for undesired behavior.
● Experiment with rats → good route through the maze reward, otherwise punishment.
Social learning theory (Bandura): We learn by watching the actions of others →
observational learning.
● Experiment with doll → children see adults play with it normally of aggressively.
Constructivism (Piaget): Infants are not born with knowledge of the world, but gradually
construct knowledge and the ability to represent reality mentally.
Scope and methods of developmental
psychology
‘Folk’ theories of development: Ideas held about development that are not based upon
scientific investigation.
● Spare the rod and spoil the child: Children need to be punished in order to develop
as pleasant.
● All sweetness and light: Like begets like: Children are born good → punishment is
unnecessary and harmful.
Defining development according to world views
Organismic worldview: Idea that people are inherently active and continually interacting
with the environment → help shape their own development.
Mechanistic worldview: Idea that a person can be presented like a machine → inherently
passive until stimulated by the environment.
Ways of studying development
Designs for studying age-related changes
Cross-sectional designs: Observing children of different ages at a single point in time.
Longitudinal designs: Observing the same group of children more than one time at
different points in their development. Allows to asses within-person changes and
between-person differences.
● High costs
● Time-consuming
● High dropout rate
● Difficult to schedule repeated visits
● Children might get better over age → more practice on tasks given.
Difference two designs: Researchers try to obtain information form both designs →
sometimes not similar results.
● Time between measures: Important to pick a good interval of testing → transition
points for changes in performance have to be captured.
● Cohort effects: When there are changes across generations in the characteristics
one is interested in.
○ Height: Average height has risen.
○ Attitudes: Now different attitudes toward homosexuality.
○ Intelligence: Flynn-effect.
Microgenetic methods: Examines change as it occurs and involves individual children
being tested repeatedly overiod of time.
Sequential designs: Combination of longitudinal designs and cross-sectional designs that
examines the development of individuals from different age cohorts.
,Research methods
Observational studies: Behavior observed and recorded → no influencing behavior.
● Baby biographies: Diaries detailing an infant’s development, kept by parents.
○ Problems of generalisation
○ Unsystematic
○ Detailed
● Time sampling: Records an individual’s behavior at frequent intervals of time.
○ May not be accurate
○ Behaviors of interest may simply not occur
● Event sampling: Records what happens during particular events.
● Clinical method: Natural behavior is observed and then the environment is changed
in order to understand better the behavior of interest.
Experimental studies: Control an individual’s environment in systematic ways in an attempt
to identify which variables influence the behavior of interest.
Psychological testing: Use of instruments for the quantitative assessment of some
psychological attribute or attributes of a person.
Correlational studies: +1 positive relationship, -1 negative relationships, 0 no relationship.
● Concurrent studies: When interested in the relationship between variables that are
measured at the same time → measuring IQ of identical twins.
● Predictive studies: When interested in finding whether individuals retain their
relative standing or rank order relative to others over time → can we predict IQ in
3-year-olds from problem-solving in infancy?
Imaging methods: Methods of recording brain activity.
● Electroencephalogram (EEG): Scalp recording done with electrodes that measure
electrical activity produced by neurons.
● Event-related potential (ERP): Scalp recordings in which brain activity is monitored
during the presentation of specific perceptual events.
● Positron emission tomography (PET): Measures cortival activity by measuring
blood flow to tissues in the body → blood flow localised to regions of high activity with
radioactive isotope.
● Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): Measures cortival activity by
measuring blood flow and involves no invasive procedures.
Developmental functions
Typical trends in development → more intelligent as we age.
Continuous function - increasing ability: Behavior that improves with age.
Continuous function - decreasing ability: Behavior that gets worse as we age.
Discontinuous function: Development takes place in a series of stagers → each new stage
appears to be qualitatively different from the preceding stages.
U-shaped function:Behavior where ability is initially very good then decreases and then
increases again.
● Inverted u-shape: bad → increases → good → decreases → bad again.
It can be useful to plot more than one developmental function on the same graph → possible
causal relationships may be suggested by doing so.
, Chapter 2
Theories and issues in child development
Motor development
Maturational theories (Gesell): States that motor development proceeds from the global to
the specific in two directions. Development is controlled by a maturational timetable linked
particularly to the central nervous system and also to muscular development.
● Cephalocaudal trend: Development that proceeds form head to foot along the
length of the body.
● Proximodistal trend: Development of motor control in infancy which is from the
centre of the body outwards to more peripheral segments.
Criticism by McGraw, she tested twins where one member of each pair received enriched
motor training and found that development in that twin was accelerated.
Dynamic systems theory (DST): A dynamic and continual interaction of 1. Nervous system
2. Capabilities and biomechanics of the body 3. Environmental constraints and support.
● Thelen: Showed ability of infants to change their pattern of interlimb coordination to
solve an imposed task.
● Thelen:Found that infants need a stable posture before they can learn new motor
skills, through developing existing abilities.
● Adolph: Found that infants don’t understand their own abilities and have the dynamic
flexibility to adjust their abilities.
Cognitive development
Piaget’s theory of development: Children learn to adapt to their environments and as a
result of their cognitive adaptations → developing cognitive awareness of the world → they
become better able to understand their world.
● Four stages of cognitive development:
○ Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years): Thought is primarily based on perception
and action and internalised thinking is largely absent.
■ Object permanence: Notion that things continue to exist when they
are out of sight.
○ Preoperational stage (2-7 years): Children lack the logical framework for
thought.
■ Egocentric: Difficulty seeing things form another’s point of view.
■ Animism: Tendency to attribute life and life qualities to inanimate
objects.
■ Conservation task: Different shapes of glasses still have same
volume → they don’t understand this yet.
○ Concrete operations stage (7-11 years): Reasoning becomes more logical,
systematic and rational.
■ Centration: Centering attention on one aspect of a situation to the
exclusion of others.
, ■ Conservation tasks: Different shapes of glasses but same volume →
now they do understand.
○ Formal operations stage (11+ years): Acquiring the capacity for abstract
scientific thought.
Assimilation: Fitting knowledge into preexisting schemes.
Accommodation: Modify preexisting schemes for new experiences.
Information processing approaches
View that cognitive processes are explained in terms of inputs and outputs and that the
human mind is a computer through which information flows.
● Cognitive development in infancy: Proceeds in bottom-up fashion and building
complex systems of knowledge form simpler origins → infants can perceive separate
components but not the whole.
● Cognitive development in childhood: They learn to determine which strategy to
use to solve particular problems → experience makes this easier.
● Connectionism and brain development:
○ Connectionist models: Modern theoretical approach that developed from
information processing accounts in which computers are programmed to
stimulate the action of the brain and neurons.
○ Methods for recording brain activity in infants and children.
Social-cognitive development
Social constructivism (Vygotsky): Social interaction plays a fundamental role in cognitive
development.
● Zone of proximal development: Distance between the actual developmental level
and the level of potential development.
Classical conditioning (Pavlov): Eliciting behaviors by neutral stimuli, because of its
learned association with a more powerful stimulus.
● Experiment with dogs, food and a bell → salivating when hearing the bell.
Law of effect (Thorndike): Consequences (reward or punishment) of behavior guide future
behavior.
● Law of recency: More likely to repeat recent behavior.
● Law of exercise: Practice strengthens stimulus-response connections.
Operant conditioning (Skinner): Training by reinforcing (adding) desired behavior and
punishing (removing) for undesired behavior.
● Experiment with rats → good route through the maze reward, otherwise punishment.
Social learning theory (Bandura): We learn by watching the actions of others →
observational learning.
● Experiment with doll → children see adults play with it normally of aggressively.
Constructivism (Piaget): Infants are not born with knowledge of the world, but gradually
construct knowledge and the ability to represent reality mentally.
