The study of the physical, cognitive, and social changes that occur throughout a person’s lifespan. Developmental Psychology

What is Developmental Psych? At every age and stage of life, developmental psychologists investigate the influence of multiple factors on development, including: –Biological –Environmental –Social –Cultural –Behavioral factors

Fundamental Issues in Developmental Psychology

Developmental Issues Nature and Nurture Stability and Change Continuity-Discontinuity Extent to which development is influenced by nature and by nurture Degree to which early traits and characteristics persist through life or change Extent development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity)

Nature vs. Nurture How much of our behavior is due to nature and how much is due to nurture? How do nature and nurture interact in development? What is role of heredity vs. environment in determining psychological makeup? – Is your IQ inherited or determined by nutrition and early environment? – Is there a ‘criminal’ gene or does poverty lead to criminal behavior? – Is sexual orientation a choice or genetically determined? Mistake to pose as ‘either / or’ questions

Stability and Change What developmental traits remain stable over time, and which change?

Continuity and Stages How much of behavior is continuous and how much follows a more stage like development?

Fundamental Issues: Is Development Continuous? Two views of human development – stage theories: there are distinct phases to development – continuity: development is continuous These views have been applied to social, personality, and cognitive development

Fundamental Issues: Critical Periods Critical period - Are there periods when an individual is particularly sensitive to certain environmental experiences? – Are the first hours after birth critical for parent-child bonding? – Is first year critical for developing trust? – Easier to learn a language before age 10? Are there individual differences in stages and critical periods? Some aspects of development, such as prenatal development and language development, are closely tied to critical periods

Themes in Development: Gradual Changes Typical course of human (physical, mental, & social) development is gradually unfolding changes.

Research Methods In Developmental Psychology Longitudinal studies are conducted to evaluate changes over a period of time. Cross-sectional studies are used to obtain information at a particular point in time.

Research Methods In Developmental Psychology Biographical studies study developmental changes by reconstructing subjects’ past through interviews and investigating the effects of past events on current behaviors

Cross Sectional Research Advantages – Inexpensive – Relatively quick to complete – No high attrition rate Disadvantages – Different age groups may be dissimilar – Age and maturity may not be equivalent – Confounds cohort and age differences

Longitudinal Research Advantages – Detailed info about subjects – Provides great detail of developmental changes – Follows same cohort group Disadvantages – Expensive and time consuming – Potential for high attrition rates – May confound age differences and difference in assessment tools

Biographical Research Advantages – Rich detail about one individual’s life – Allows for in-depth study of one individual Disadvantages – Individual’s recall is often untrustworthy – Can be very time consuming and expensive

Cognitive Development  Cognition  All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development ode=true&persist_safety_mode=1http:// ode=true&persist_safety_mode=1 (Standard Deviants)

Jean Piaget: Cognitive Development Theory  Schema  a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information  Assimilation  interpreting one’s new experience in terms of one’s existing schemas  Accommodation  adapting one’s current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

Assimilation and Accomodation

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development Intellectual development happens in stages; children don’t have capability to think the way adults do Child only goes on to the next stage once he/she has completely mastered the previous one. Each stage is seen as a kind of 'building block' for the next stage to rest on.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development 4 stages Approximate ages at which children reached those stages – stressed that ages are only averages – individual children might go through the stages at a different speed but they would always go through the stages in the same order.

The stages 23

Sensorimotor senses actions  The infant only knows the world via its immediate senses and the (motor) actions it performs  Lacks internal mental schemata; unable to distinguish between itself and its environment (profound egocentrism) – “Awareness” clip  The infant lacks object permanence – fails to see or act on ‘hidden’ objects  At 0-5 months an object that was visually hidden is not searched for  At 8 months children will search for the object but will tend to search in places it has seen the object hidden before – even though the object is visually moved to a new hiding place 

Pre-operational Throughout this stage the child’s continues to add to or create new schemas The child is still dominated by the sensory information it receives and is thus very influenced by the appearance of things. They fail to be able to carry out logical operations and show centration (only focus on one aspect of an object at a time) 25

Pre-operational  Animism - child understands ‘bad table’, believes inanimate objects have feelings as they do. 3Q 3Q  Egocentrism – the difficulty in understanding that others do not see, think and feel things like you do. feature=related feature=related  Three Mountains Study  Lack of Conservation – the inability to realise that some things remain constant or unchanged despite changes in visible appearance &feature=related &feature=related 26

What is conservation? Piaget argued that the inability to conserve is due to the child's failure to understand that things remain the same (constant) despite changes in their appearance (how they look). Piaget believes this is an example of centration. The pre-operational child has not decentred and is therefore centring on just one dimension. For example, the child is centring on just one dimension of the beaker, usually its height, and so fails to take width into account “Are they the same?” Roll one of the play dough balls into a sausage shape

Concrete operational  The child is able to carry out mental operations on the world and de-centre.  The child can conserve and complete class inclusion tasks and the three mountains task successfully (overcoming egocentrism)  However these operations cannot be carried out in the child’s head – the physical (concrete) presence of the objects being manipulated is needed.  Therefore the child would be able to conserve if they see the physical transformation of the objects / liquid  ture=related ture=related 28

Formal operational Ideas can be manipulated in the head and reasoning deductions can be carried out on verbal statements, without the aid of visual / concrete examples. Can think about hypothetical problems Can think about abstract concepts Consequences considered and things are planned Stop using trial and error learning use logical thinking to solve problems Approach problems in a systematic and organised way: ‘Edith is fairer than Susan, Edith is darker than Lily. Who is the darkest?’ This can be answered without needing to use dolls or pictures to help. 29

Piaget Meets Santa Claus