1. DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
What do Developmental Psychologists study?
Development: Systematic continuities and changes in the individual that occur between conception and death.

2. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IS CONTINUAL, CUMULATIVE AND HOLISTIC
Continual and Cumulative:
Holistic:

3. WHAT MIGHT YOU LEARN IN THIS COURSE ??
1. What the world looks like to a newborn infant.
2. Why 1-year-olds are afraid of strangers.
3. How children learn their native language.
4. Why you don’t remember much before the age of three.
5. How children from the same family can be so different.
6. Why teenagers are so difficult to get along with.

4. GOALS OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Understanding:
a. Universal Change
b. Individual Change
c. Situational Influences

5. GOALS OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Understanding:
a. Universal Change
b. Individual Change
c. Situational Influences
How to Study Development:
a. Describe
b. Explain
c. Optimize

6. CHRONOLOGICAL OVERVIEW OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Period of Life Age Range
Prenatal Conception to Birth
Infancy/Toddler First two years
Preschool years
Middle Childhood 6-puberty
Adolescence Puberty-20 yrs
Young Adult years
Middle Age years
Old Age 65 and up

7. RESEARCH IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Basic Definitions:
Hypothesis: An educated proposition about how the factors being studied are related to each other.

8. RESEARCH IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Basic Definitions:
Hypothesis: An educated proposition about how the factors being studied are related to each other.
Theory: A set of concepts and propositions that allow the theorist to describe and explain some aspect of experience.
What are good theories?

9. RESEARCH IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Reliability: Extent to which a measuring instrument yields consistent results, both over time and across observers.

10. RESEARCH IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Reliability: Extent to which a measuring instrument yields consistent results, both over time and across observers.
Validity: Extent to which a measuring instrument accurately reflects what the researchers intended to measure.

11. RESEARCH IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Gathering data:
Self-report Methodologies
1. Interviews & Questionnaires
2. Clinical Methods

12. RESEARCH IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Gathering data:
Self-report Methodologies
Observational Methodologies
1. Naturalistic
2. Structured

13. RESEARCH IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Gathering data:
Self-report Methodologies
Observational Methodologies
Case Studies

14. RESEARCH IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Gathering data:
Self-report Methodologies
Observational Methodologies
Case Studies
Ethnography

15. RESEARCH IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Gathering data:
Self-report Methodologies
Observational Methodologies
Case Studies
Ethnography
Psychophysiological Methods

16. RESEARCH IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Sampling:
The sample, or group of subjects chosen, is an important consideration in research.
Random Samples
Representative Samples
Population
Generalization

17. RESEARCH IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Experimental Design:
Be sure to review these terms on your own:
1. Independent, Dependent & Confounding Variables
2. Experimental Control, Random Assignment, & Ecological Validity
3. Correlational Design, Laboratory, Field & Natural (quasi-) Experiments

18. DESIGNS FOR STUDYING DEVELOPMENT
Cross-Sectional Design: subjects from different age groups are studied at the same point in time.

19. DESIGNS FOR STUDYING DEVELOPMENT
Cross-Sectional Design: subjects from different age groups are studied at the same point in time.
Cohort Effects
Strengths
Limitations

20. DESIGNS FOR STUDYING DEVELOPMENT
Longitudinal Design: one group of subjects is studied repeatedly over a period of months or years.

21. DESIGNS FOR STUDYING DEVELOPMENT
Longitudinal Design: one group of subjects is studied repeatedly over a period of months or years.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Practice Effects
Selective Attrition
Nonrepresentative Sample
Cross-generational problem

22. DESIGNS FOR STUDYING DEVELOPMENT
Longitudinal-Sequential Design: subjects from different age groups are studied repeatedly over a period of months or years.

23. DESIGNS FOR STUDYING DEVELOPMENT
Longitudinal-Sequential Design: subjects from different age groups are studied repeatedly over a period of months or years.
Strengths
Weaknesses

24. LONGITUDINAL-SEQUENTIAL DESIGNS
Two Samples of Children
- one born in 1991
- one born in 1993
Both observed longitudinally

25. LONGITUDINAL-SEQUENTIAL DESIGNS
Longitudinal Comparisons
Cross-Sectional Comparisons
Cohort Comparisons
6-year olds
8-year olds
10-year olds
1993
Year of birth (Cohort)
8-year olds
10-year olds
12-year olds
1991
1999
2001
2003
Year of testing

26. LONGITUDINAL-SEQUENTIAL DESIGNS
Note: Even this technique is limited unless you repeat it cross culturally!

27. MICROGENETIC DESIGNS
A research design in which
researchers present children
with a novel task and follow
their mastery over a series of
closely spaced sessions.
e.g. Long-division problems

28. MICROGENETIC DESIGNS
A research design in which
researchers present children
with a novel task and follow
their mastery over a series of
closely spaced sessions.
e.g. Long-division problems
Strengths
Weaknesses

29. Now YOU can evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the studies you read or hear about in the news.