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CHAPTER 1 : THE SCIENCE OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT  Issues of Development  Patterns of Development  Developmental Research  Ethical Considerations in Conducting Research with Children

 The Social & Historical Context of Child Development 1. Understanding conceptions of the Life-span 2. The status of the child in current society 3. The status of the child in the middle ages – differences based on social class 4. The mid-1800s – social change 5. Changes in Laws

 Heredity vs. Environment 1. This is the issue of which contributes to development – nature or nurture? 2. Nature: biology, genetics 3. Nurture: experience, learning, interactions with specific environments 4. Learning vs. maturation 5. The concept of the Reaction Range

 Continuity vs. Disco ntinuity 1. Stage-like development vs. non-stage development 2. Stage theories & non-stage theories

1. Normative – age graded 2. Normative – history graded 3. Non-normative What is a cohort?

 General research designs: 1. Experimental research: The goal is to establish cause & effect between the IV and the DV.  Independent variable  Dependent variable  Control group  Experimental group

2. Correlational research: The goal is to establish a relationship between the variables, X and Y.  Direction of the relationship  Strength of the relationship Types of correlations: a) Negative correlation b) Positive correlation c) Zero correlation

What is the IV in C-S research? What is the IV in Longitudinal research?  Testing subjects of various age groups at one time.  Advantages: Inexpensive & quick  Disadvantage: Cohort effects  Testing one age (or age group) of subjects multiple times, over a period of weeks, months, years.  Advantage: Eliminates cohort effects  Disadvantages: Attrition, practice effects, expensive & long-term

 Children cannot give consent by signing a written informed consent form which they’ve read and understood.  Consent must be obtained from parents/ guardians. A verbal assent must be obtained from the children that they in fact want to participate in the research after the study has been explained to them in a language they can understand.