PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Repeated Measures Design, Feral Child, Longitudinal Study
Developmental Psychology
Aims
• To introduce the big issues
o How infants and toddlers learn and remember
o Understanding emotions, develop empathy, mimic people
• To illustrate common research designs that are used to answer questions about development and
discuss the pros and cons of each
o Big three
o What happens, when and how
Outcomes
• Big 3, with examples
What is development?
• Changes in all kinds of different domains of human behaviour
• Greatest change occurs from infancy to childhood
• Domain of development
o Intelligence
▪ hard to measure early on
o Cognition
▪ how they think and complexity of how they can manipulate ideas
o Skills
▪ things they can do - physical
o Emotional
▪ Recognising emotions of other people
▪ Regulation of emotions
o Social interactions
o Language
o Physical
• Characteristics of developmental change
o Orderly
▪ Occurs in a predictable sequence
o Cumulative
▪ Builds on skills they've already learned before
o Directional
▪ Mostly getting better
▪ Uncommon to lose skills
Why study
• Basic Science
o Understand how things work in early infancy - apply to adulthood
o Intelligence and decision making
▪ Complex phenomenon
▪ Hard to understand in adult form
o When things develop, how things develop and why
• Applied science
o Maximising developmental outcome in children everywhere
o Situations where you don't usually see a psychologist
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Issues in developmental psychology
• Nature vs. Nurture
o What are the causes of developmental change?
o Does environmental impact matter
• Early experience vs. Later experience
o To what extent does early experience shape later functioning?
o Can you make up skills with later experience
• Continuity vs. Discontinuity
o What is the nature of developmental change?
o Are there stages in development or is it gradual
• Nature vs. Nurture
o Biology vs. Experience
o Genes vs. Environment
▪ Does it matter where you grew up, when do they matter?
Nature / Biology / Genes
Nurture / experience /
environment
Development is simply maturation
Environmental events shape the
course of a child's development
A genetically determined process of growth
that unfolds naturally over a period of time
Genetics/biology place no
restrictions on how a child
develops
o Nature and Nurture
▪ Development proceeds as an interaction of biological and environmental factors
▪ Environmental stimuli triggers gene expression
▪ Genetic predispositions only play out with certain environmental experiences
• Early vs. Later experience
o To what degree and under what conditions does experience influence development?
o Is timing of experience important?
o Critical or sensitive periods?
Critical
Sensitive
When certain experiences are crucial
for a particular feature of
development to emerge
Experience is optimal for development of a
particular function
No experience during this time, the
function will not develop
Similar function can develop after the
sensitive period has closed. Usually under
more intense experience
o Critical
▪ Visual development
• Lack of eye-brain connections
• Kittens with eyes sewn shut
• Never developed ability to use sight to navigate
▪ Language
• Feral children
• Never exposed to language
• Able to learn words
• Never learns grammar, and sentence structure
o Sensitive
▪ Attachment disorder
• Children placed in foster care compared to high quality care
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
What is development: changes in all kinds of different domains of human behaviour, greatest change occurs from infancy to childhood, domain of development. Why study: basic science, understand how things work in early infancy - apply to adulthood. Intelligence and decision making: complex phenomenon, hard to understand in adult form, when things develop, how things develop and why, applied science, maximising developmental outcome in children everywhere, situations where you don"t usually see a psychologist. A genetically determined process of growth that unfolds naturally over a period of time. Environmental events shape the course of a child"s development. When certain experiences are crucial for a particular feature of development to emerge. No experience during this time, the function will not develop: critical, visual development. Experience is optimal for development of a particular function. Similar function can develop after the sensitive period has closed. Lack of eye-brain connections: kittens with eyes sewn shut, never developed ability to use sight to navigate, language.
