Summary Chapter 1 Developmental Psychology

1: The Scope & Methods of Developmental Psychology
[INTRODUCTION]

AN INTRODUCTION TO DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
 Developmental psychology = attempts to describe & explain changes that occur over time in the
thought/behavior/reasoning/functioning of a person due to gene & environmental influences
 Children’s development, development of human behavior across the lifespan

STUDYING CHANGES WITH AGE
 Increasing age by itself contributes nothing to development
 What’s important is changes resulting from experience & maturation = aspects of development
that are largely under genetic control (hence largely uninfluenced by environmental factors) (e.g.
puberty)


[CONCEPTS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT]

“FOLK” THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT: PUNISHMENT OR PRAISE?
 “Folk” theories of development = ideas held about development that are not based upon scientific
investigation
 2 opposing folk theories:
1. Punishment = children need to be punished regularly to develop as pleasant/law-abiding
citizens; failure to use physical punishment may cause the child to be disobedient, & their
soul may be at risk
2. Praise = children are born inherently good; physical punishment is unnecessary & harmful

DEFINING DEVELOPMENT ACCORDING TO WORLD VIEWS
 Paradigm = a world view/model/world hypothesis
 World view = a philosophical system of ideas that serves to organize a set/family or scientific
theories & scientific methods
 2 main paradigms/world views:
1. Organismic world view = the idea that people are inherently active & continually interacting
with the environment, therefore helping to shape their own development
 E.g. Piaget’s theory
 Child is active
 Development occurs in stages (qualitatively different), cannot be reversed
2. Mechanistic world view = the idea that people can be represented as being like machines,
& are inherently passive until stimulated by the environment
 E.g. behaviorists = theorists who believe that directly observable behavior, resulting
from conditioning, reinforcement, & punishment, is the focus of development
 Child is passive
 Development occurs gradually (quantitatively different), frequency of behavior
decreases with age when it is no longer functional




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, [WAYS OF STUDYING DEVELOPMENT]

WAYS OF STUDYING DEVELOPMENT
 2 broad categories:
o Designs for studying age-related changes in behavior
o Research methods used to collect information/data about development

DESIGNS FOR STUDYING AGE-RELATED CHANGES

Design Definition Strengths Limitations
Cross- A study where children of  Fast, cheap  Only describes age
sectional different ages are  Provides quick estimate differences
design observed at a single point of changes with age  No estimate of continuity
in time
Longitudinal A study where more than  Can assess within-person  Slow, expensive
design 1 observation of the changes with age &  High drop-out rates
same group of children is between-person  Practice effects may
made at different points differences in age occur
in their development changes  Results may only be true
 Estimates of continuity for the particular cohort
studied
Microgenetic A method that examines  Detailed information  Practice effects may
method change as it occurs; about an individual over a occur = repeated trials
children are tested period of transition over short period of time
repeatedly over a short
period of time
Sequential A combination of cross-  Combines strong aspects  Slow, expensive
designs sectional & longitudinal of cross-sectional &
designs; examines the longitudinal designs
development of  Reveals whether results
individuals from different from these 2 designs
age cohorts agree

 Sometimes cross-sectional & longitudinal results tell a different story, due to:
o Length of time between measures:
 Different distances between test ages (intervals on x-axis) can result in very different
developmental functions
 Some developmental functions are not revealed unless frequent measurements are
taken (e.g. growing a cm overnight)
o Cohort effects:
 Changes across generations in the characteristic of interest (e.g. height, attitudes,
leisure activities, everyday life, IQ)

RESEARCH METHODS
 Observational studies
 Experimental methods
 Psychological testing
 Correlational studies


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