A S L 3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Developmental Psychology, Mother 3, Nature Genetics
Document Summary
Development- process by which an organism (human or animal) grows and changes through its lifespan (smith et al. , 2003, p. 5) Previously studied via observations eg. darwin- case study, own children, anecdotal, lack scientific rigour. Naturalistic- real life, not interfered with, no manipulation of variables, subjective, confounding variables. Recently processes of development have become a key area of study (how we develop, why changes occur) 5 domains: physical- motor, sensory, perceptual, cognitive- learn, think, remember, problem solving, psychosocial- peers, family relationship, morality, emotional- attachment, emotional expressions, self-belief, linguistic- speech and language communication. Continuous- small, gradual processes of change, quantitative change eg. words in vocab. Discontinuous- periods of rapid growth and development, emergence of new forms of thought and behaviour, qualitative change, new patterns eg. babbling > talking, crawling > walking. Developmental functions: behaviour increases with age eg. vocab, function, intelligence, mobility- crawl > walk, abrupt transition, athletic ability, stepping- born with reflex, then disappears.
