DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF GHANA PSCY 335: - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF GHANA PSCY 335: DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 1: CONCEPTION TO ADOLESCENCE LECTURER URER: Dr. Joana Salifu Yendork

 Definitions,  Nature/characteristics of development,  Domains of human development,  Stages of life span  The concept of age  Themes/controversies/issues  Research methods  Ethical issues in research

 Development: systemat

ematic continui nuiti ties es and changes nges in the individual that occur between conception and death (Shaffer & Kipp, 2010, 2014).

 Systematic: changes are orderly, patterned,

and relatively enduring

 Continuities: ways in which individuals remain

the same or continue to reflect our past

 Development: pattern of change that begins at

conception and continues through the life span (Santrock, 2011)

 Branch of psychology devoted to identifying

and explaining the continuities and changes that individuals display over time (Shaffer & Kipp, 2010, 2014).

 Branch of psychology devoted to studying

pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through the life span (Santrock, 2011)

 Development is lifelong  Development is multidimensional  Development is multidirectional

 Development is a holistic process  Development is Plastic  Development is Contextual  The study of development is

multidisciplinary

 Development is lifelong spanning from

conception to death.

 Development is a continual process such that

the path of developmental changes stretch ever onward until we die.

 Changes are cumulative: such that changes

that occur at each stage of life can have significant implications for the future.

 Development is multidimens

ensiona ional occurring across many dimensions/domains

 Biological processes: changes in the physiology.

Eg., genes from parents, brain development, height and weight gain, hormonal changes in adolescents.

 Cognitive processes: changes in thinking,

intelligence and language

 Social and emotional processes: changes in

relationship with others, emotions and

• personality. Eg. Infant’s smile in response to

cuddling, toddler’s aggressive behaviours towards a playmate.

 Component within dimensions. E.g, attention,

memory, abstract thinking as component of cognitive development.

 Development is multidirecti

irectional

• nal: Throughout

life, some dimensions or components of a dimension expand and others shrink.

 Eg, when one language (such as English) is

acquired early in development, the capacity for acquiring second and third languages (such as Spanish and Chinese) decreases later in development, especially after early childhood.

 Deve

velopmen

• pment is a holistic

istic process cess: formally developmentalists; those who studied physical

• nly, cognitive only and psychosocial

development

 Presently: a unified view that emphasizes the

important interrelationships among domains of development

 Development can’t be pieced out but viewed as

a holistic process encompassing cognitive, physical and psychosocial aspects and each aspect impact on the other

 E.g., Popularity with peers: age of puberty +

social skills + intellectual abilities

 Devel

elopment pment is is pla lastic ic: capacity for change during different stages of life and in response to positive or negative life experiences.

 The course of development can change

abruptly if important aspects of one’s life change.

 Devel

elopment pment is is contextual tual: the context influence development

 Context include cultural, social,

geographical and historical

 Th

The study y of development

• pment is multidis

idiscipli ciplina nary ry: to understand development, information is integrated from different disciplines such as biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and medicine.

 Chro

ronol nologi

• gical

cal age ge: number of years since birth

 Bi

Biologi gical cal age ge: describes biological health and functional capacity of vital organs, such as heart, lungs, kidneys, circulatory system

 Ps

Psycho ychologic

• gical

al age ge: measure of adaptive capacities, including ability to learn, establish and maintain motivation, be flexible and think clearly

 Prenatal development: conception to birth. A

point where single cell develop into a complete organism with complex brain and nervous system

 Infancy: birth to 18-24 months. extremely

dependent on adult and other older

• individuals. Psychological activities begin

 Early childhood: 2 to 5/6 years/preschool years.

Become more self-sufficient, learn school readiness skills such as following instructions and recognizing letters and colours

 Middle and late childhood: 6 to 11/12

years/Elementary school years. Master skills of reading, writing and arithmetic, achievement is central theme and person shows increasing self- control

 Adolescence: 10-12 to 18-22 years/transition

from childhood to early adulthood. Begins with rapid physical changes, characteristic of puberty, major goals of becoming independence and developing an individual identity. Think more logical and abstract

 Early adulthood: from late teens through 30

• years. Establish personal, social, emotional

and economic independence, beginning career development, select life partner, start family and child rearing

 Middle adulthood: from early 40s until around

age 60. Expands personal and social involvement and responsibility, assist next generation and reach and maintain career satisfaction

 Late adulthood: from 60s and 70s until death.

Time to review and reflect, retirement and adjusting to decreasing strength and health, longest span of any developmental period

 Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed,

and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant, chief, and yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless

• f his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities,

vocations, and race of his ancestors. There is no such thing as an inheritance of capacity, talent, temperament, mental constitution, and behavioral characteristics (Watson, 1925, p. 82).

 Behaviorism: development is viewed in terms

• f learning.

 Assumptions are children are born as tabula

rasa/blank slate and their ideas, preferences and skills are shaped by experience.

 Arnold Gesell also opined that biologi

gical al maturati uration

• n was the main principle of

development.

 Gesell focused on the physical aspect of

growth and development.

 Nature-Nurture debate

• Nature vs nurture,
• Active vs passive,
• Continuous vs discontinuous/Quantitative vs

qualitative;

• Stability vs change

 Is human development primarily the result of

nature (biological forces) or nurture (environmental forces)?

 One group of developmentalists advanced the

view that heredity and not environment is the chief maker of man.

 . . . . Nearly all of the misery and nearly all of

the happiness in the world are due not to

• environment. . . . The differences among men

are due to differences in germ cells with which they were born (Wiggam, 1923, p. 42).

 Nature-focused

 E.g., cognitive developmentalists and

biological theorists

 Another group of developmentalists (nurture-

focused) advanced the view that environment and not heredity causes development.

 Watson, 1925, p. 82.  Currently: integrative approach  The relative contributions of nature and

nurture depend on the aspect of development in question

 E.g.,: Language: brain component and

influence of caregiver’s language

 Are children curious, active creatures who largely

determine how agents of society treat them? Or, are they passive souls on whom society fixes its stamp?

 Active-viewers opine that children are born with

certain predispositions that influence how people treats them

 E.g., a child with difficult temperament  Passive-viewers opine that children are extremely

malleable—literally at the mercy of those who raise them

 Eg. a young preteen girl who has gone through the

biological changes of puberty earlier than most of her classmates and friends (passive). But her early maturity will affect how she is treated

 Do you think that the changes we experience

• ccur very gradually? Or, would you say that these

changes are rather abrupt?

 Continuity theorists who view human development

as an continuous/additive process that occurs gradually and continuously, without sudden changes.

 Discontinuity theorists view development as series

• f sudden changes each of which elevates the

child to a new and presumably more advanced level of functioning.

 Quant

ntita itativ tive e changes are changes in degree or amount

 Eg, grow taller and run a little faster with each

passing year

 Qualita

itativ tive e changes are changes in form or kind—changes that make the individual fundamentally different in some way than he or she was earlier

 Eg, an infant who lacks language may be

qualitatively different from a preschooler who speaks well

 Continuity theorists view developmental changes

are basically quantitative in nature, whereas discontinuity theorists view development as a sequence of qualitative changes

 To what degree do early traits and characteristics

persist through life or change

 E.g., can a shy child develop to become a sociable

and talkative adult?

 Theorists who emphasize stability argue that

stability is the result of heredity and possibly early experiences in life

 Theorists who emphasize change take the more

• ptimistic view that later experiences can produce

change

 Which side of the debate do you stand?  Today, many developmentalists are

theoretical eclectics: cs: rely on many theories, recognizing that none of the grand theories can explain all aspects of development and that each makes some contribution to our understanding.

 Describe  Explain  Optimize development

 Desc

scripti ription

• n: observe behavior at different

ages in order to specify how people change

• ver time

 Typical patterns of change (normative)

ative) and individual variations in patterns of change (ideograph graphic)

 Explan

anation ation: determine why people develop as they typically do and why some people develop differently than others

 Optimi

mizati zation

• n: applying what they have

learned in attempts to help people develop in positive directions

 To gain insight into human nature  To gain insight into the origins of adult

behavior

 To gain insight into the origins of sex

differences and gender roles and the effects of culture on development

 To gain insight into the origins, prevention, and

treatment of developmental problems

 To optimize conditions of development

 Development Psychology use the scientific

method

 Scientific method use of objective and

replicable methods to gather data for the purpose of testing a theory or hypothesis

 Objective: similar conclusion by different

researchers who examines the data

 Replicability: every time the method is used,

it results in the same data and conclusions

 Scientific method involves a process of

generating ideas and testing them

 The observations from the scientific method

is used to formulate theory and hypothesis

 Self-report methods: Interviews,

questionnaires/surveys, clinical method

 Observation  Case study  Ethnography  Psychophysiological methods

 The researcher ask the child or the caregiver

series of questions about aspect of development

 Questionnaires: questions are on paper and

participants are required to respond in writing

 Interviews: require participants to respond orally

to the investigator’s queries

 Limitation

ations:

 Can’t be used with very young children who

cannot read or comprehend speech very well

 Social desirability  Age-related interpretations might be biased;  Conflict among different informants

 Present participant with a task and then invite a

response.

 After the participant responds, the investigator

typically asks a second question or introduces a new task to clarify the participant’s original answer.

 The follow-up question is determined by the

participant’s response to the initial question

 Emphasis is place on the uniqueness of each

participant

 Good for large data in relatively short time  Limitation

tions:

 Difficult for comparing participants  Potential influence of the examiner’s pre-existing

theoretical biases on follow-up questions asked and the interpretation provided.

 Natura

ralisti istic c observati ation

• n—observing people in their

common, everyday (that is, natural) surroundings

 Suitable for infants and toddlers: since they cant

communicate verbally and also eliminated the bias of parents informants

 Give the true nature of the participants without

relying on their self-report accuracy.

 Limitation

tions:

 Not applicable to every situation such as some

behaviors occur so infrequently (eg, heroic rescues)

• r are so socially undesirable (eg, criminal acts)

 Simultaneous events that makes it difficult to

pinpoint the causes of a particular action

 Observer influence

 Struc

ructured tured observa rvation ion

 Participant is exposed to a setting that might

cue the behavior in question and is then secretly observed (via a hidden camera or through a one-way mirror)

 Also ensure that every participant in the

sample is exposed to the same eliciting stimuli and has an equal opportunity to perform the target behavior—circumstances that are not always true in the natural environment

 Limitation

ation: Participants may not behave the same way as they would in their natural environment

 Using self-report or observation to compile

• f detailed picture e.g, family background,

 Limi

mitations ations:

 Difficult to directly compare participants who

have been asked different questions, taken different tests, and been observed under different circumstances

 Lack generalizability; that is, conclusions

drawn from the experiences of the small number of individuals studied may simply not apply to most people

 For understanding the effects of culture on

developing children and adolescents

 Data collected is typically diverse and

extensive

 Rich understanding of the cultures traditions

and values

 Limitation

ations:

 Highly subjective method because

researchers’ own cultural values and theoretical biases can cause them to misinterpret what they have experienced

 Lacks generalizability

 Measure the relationship between physiological

responses and behavior— to explore the biological underpinnings of children’s perceptual, cognitive, and emotional responses

 Useful for interpreting the mental and emotional

experiences of infants and toddlers who are unable to report such events

 Limi

mitation tions

 Though very useful, they are not perfect indicators

• f psychological states.

 Changes in physiological responses often reflect

mood swings, fatigue, hunger, or even negative reactions to the physiological recording equipment, rather than a change in the infant’s attention to a stimulus or emotional reactions to it

 Correlational  Experimental  Cross-cultural

 The investigator gathers information to

determine whether two or more variables of interest are meaningfully related.

 No attempts are made to structure or to

manipulate the participants’ environment in any way

 The presence (or absence) of a relationship

between variables can be determined by examining the data with a statistical procedure that yields a correlation tion coeff fficient nt (direction, strength)

 Limitation

tion: cannot determine causal relationships due to the influence of extraneous variables

 Allows the assessment of the cause-and-effect

relationship that may exist between two variables

 Eg. Watching violent movies causes aggressive

inclinations in children.

 True experiment and quasi-experiment  Lab experiment: participants are brought to the

lab, expose to different treatments (Independent Variable, IV) and record their responses to these treatments as data (Dependent Variable, DV)

 Confo

foun unding ding variables: are controlled through random assignment

 Limitation

tions:

 Laboratory: tightly controlled laboratory

environment that is often artificial

 Conclusions drawn do not always apply to the

real world.

 Field experiment: experiment in the natural

setting, mostly without participants’ knowledge

 Quasi experiment: used for situations where

experimental design cant be applied or for ethical reason,

 IV cannot be controlled and no random

assignment

 Pre-existing groups are used.  Eg. The effect of traumatic experiences (June

3rd flood) on well-being.

 Cross-cultural studies: participants from

different cultural or sub-cultural backgrounds are observed, tested, and compared on one or more aspects of development.

 Helps to determine cultural differences or

similarities in development

 Cross-sectional design  Longitudinal design  Sequential design

 Different age cohorts are studied at the same

point in time

 Age-related changes in development  Data can be collected from children of

different ages over a short time

 Limi

mitations ations:

 Cohort effects: changes might not be due to

age or development but other cultural or historical factors

 Unable to inform about the development of

individuals because each person is observed at only one point in time

 The same participants are observed

repeatedly over a period of time.

 Also identify normative developmental trends

and processes by looking for commonalities

 Tracking of several participants over time will

help investigators to understand individual differences in development

 Limitation

ations:

 Can be very costly and time-consuming;  Practice effects (familiarity with test items)

can also threaten the validity of longitudinal studies; ;

 Problem with selective attrition

 Participants different ages are studied over

time

 Draw the strength of both cross-sectional

and longitudinal designs

 Allows researchers to make both longitudinal

and cross-sectional comparisons in the same study

 Often more efficient than standard

longitudinal designs

 Rights of research participants  Must meet standards of the research ethics

committees

 Protection from mental and physical harm  Informed consent from parents and legal

guardians and informed assent from children

 Confidentiality  Debriefing (after the study discuss purpose of

research and method used)

 Deception (is used, ensure deception with no

harm)