PSY210H1 Lecture 1: Introduction
Document Summary
What makes us who we are: basic genes, nature aspect, environments, peers, cultures. Why should we care: relevant for caregiving and teaching, recommendations for social policies, reaching at risk children, mental health, developmental disabilities. Infants start out very similar: children"s brains look different if they are raised in poverty, true in terms of group patterns but varies at the individual level. Id, ego, superego: first theorist to discuss child development, childhood has a major impact on mental health, psychodynamic therapy, highlights childhood as important to who we are. Behaviourism: watson & skinner, stimulus/response learning, equipotentiality: belief that anyone can learn anything, operant conditioning, external stimuli influenced behaviour, reward and punishment in parenting, doesn"t explore all learning (language for example) Theorists today: discuss mix of nativism and empiricism, epigenetics, environment is important for which protein is expressed within the dna. Influence on child development theories: neuroscience and mechanisms, the way the behaviour is actualized, kids in context.
