Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION © 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

Chapter 1INTRODUCTION

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.


• What is good about children today?

• What is bad about children today?

INTRODUCTION


WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT

Dimensions of Development• Biological• Cognitive• SocioEmotional

BioPsychoSocial Development

Systematic changes and continuities in the individual that occur between conception and death or pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through death.


BIOLOGICAL, COGNITIVE, ANDSOCIOEMOTIONAL PROCESSES

• Changes in an individual’s body

Biological processes

• Changes in an individual’s thought, intelligence, and language

Cognitive processes

• Changes in an individual’s relationships with other people, changes in emotions, and changes in personality

Socioemotional processes


CHANGES IN DEVELOPMENT ARE THE RESULT OF BIOLOGICAL, COGNITIVE, AND

SOCIOEMOTIONAL PROCESSES


PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT

• The time from conception to birth

Prenatal period

• The developmental period that extends from birth to 18 to 24 months of age

Infancy

• The developmental period that extends from the end of infancy to about 5 to 6 years of age

Early childhood


PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT

• The developmental period that extends from about 6 to 11 years of age

Middle and late childhood

• The developmental period of transition from childhood to early adulthood, entered at approximately 10 to 12 years of age and ending at 18 to 22 years of age

Adolescence


• Cohort effects: Effects due to a person’s time of birth, era, or generation but not to actual age

• Millennials: The generation born after 1980 that is the first to come of age and enter emerging adulthood in the new millennium• Two characteristics • Their ethnic diversity• Their connection to technology

AGE AND COHORT EFFECTS


• Nature and nurture: The issue regarding whether development is primarily influenced by nature or nurture

• Continuity and discontinuity issue : The issue regarding whether development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity)

• Early and later experience: The issue of the degree to which early experiences or later experiences are the key determinants of the child’s development

ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT


• Psychoanalytic theories: Describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily colored by emotion• Behavior is merely a surface characteristic, and the

symbolic workings of the mind have to be analyzed to understand behavior

• Early experiences with parents are emphasized

THEORIES OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT


FREUD’S THEORY OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

• Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)

• Parts of personality• Id• Ego• Superego

• Stage Theory• Too much or too little gratification - Fixated at that stage


FREUDIAN STAGES


ERIKSON’S THEORY OF PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

• Erik Erikson (1902–1994)• Modified and expanded Freud’s theory• Successful resolution of life (Psychosocial) crises

bolsters sense of identity

• Diff erences from psychosexual development• Development of self-identity through expanding social

interactions• Includes conscious and purposeful acts in development• Extends stages to eight; throughout adulthood


ERIKSON’S EIGHT LIFE-SPAN STAGES


• The contributions of psychoanalytic theories include these ideas:• Early experiences play an important part in development• Family relationships are a central aspect of development• Personality can be better understood if it is examined

developmentally• Activities of the mind are not entirely conscious—

unconscious aspects need to be considered• In Erikson’s theory, changes take place in adulthood as

well as in childhood

EVALUATING THE PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES


• Criticism:• The main concepts of psychoanalytic theories are

difficult to test scientifically• Much of the data used to support psychoanalytic theories

come from individuals’ reconstruction of the past and are of unknown accuracy

• The sexual underpinnings of development are given too much importance

• The unconscious mind is given too much credit for influencing development

• Psychoanalytic theories present an image of humans that is too negative and are culture- and gender-biased

EVALUATING THE PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES


THE COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

• Focuses on children’s mental processes• How children perceive and mentally represent the

worldz

1. Jean Piaget (1896–1980) Cognitive-developmental theory

2. Information-processing theory

3. Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory


PIAGET’S COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY

• Worked with Binet on IQ tests for children• Piaget was interested in children’s wrong answers

• Piaget’s work was not widely read until mid 1950s• Diffi cult to understand• Introduced when behaviorism and psychoanalysis were

popular

• Piaget’s view of children as “natural physicists” – Children are scientists, testing their view of the world


PIAGET’S BASIC CONCEPTS

• Scheme• An organized understanding of something

• Adaptation• Organize our world by interacting with the environment

1.AssimilationFitting something new into an existing

scheme2.Accommodation

Adjusting scheme to a new object or event• Equilibration

• Restore equilibrium


PIAGET’S FOUR STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT


INFORMATION-PROCESSING THEORY

• Influenced by the concepts of computer science• Process of encoding information (input)• Storage of information (long-term memory)• Retrieval of information (short-term memory)• Manipulation of information to solve problems (output)• Software (mental processes)• Hardware (brain)

• Applications in education


• Vygotsky’s theory: A sociocultural cognitive theory that emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development

• Our thoughts are “created” by the culture we live in and the tools we use.

COGNITIVE THEORIES


• The primary contributions of cognitive theories are that:• They present a positive view of development,

emphasizing conscious thinking• They emphasize the individual’s active construction of

understanding • Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories underscore the

importance of examining developmental changes in children’s thinking

• Information-processing theory offers detailed descriptions of cognitive processes

EVALUATING THE COGNITIVE THEORIES


• Criticism• Piaget’s stages are not as uniform as he theorized• The cognitive theories do not give adequate attention to

individual variations in cognitive development• Information-processing theory does not provide an

adequate description of developmental changes in cognition

• Psychoanalytic theorists argue that the cognitive theories do not give enough credit to unconscious thought

EVALUATING THE COGNITIVE THEORIES


THE LEARNING PERSPECTIVE BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL COGNITIVE

THEORIES

• Behaviorism - John B. Watson• Classical conditioning - Ivan Pavlov

• Operant conditioning - B. F. Skinner

• Observable Behavior; individual passively learn behaviors

• Social Cognitive Theory• Observational learning – Albert Bandura

• Active participants in learning


• Pavlov’s classical conditioning• A neutral stimulus acquires the ability to produce a

response originally produced by another stimulus

• Skinner’s operant conditioning• The consequences of a behavior produce changes in the

probability of the behavior’s occurrence• A behavior followed by:• A rewarding stimulus is more likely to recur• A punishing stimulus is less likely to recur

BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORIES


SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY

• Albert Bandura • Acquire basic behavior through observational

learning• Key experiment: Bobo Doll

• Learning alters child’s mental representation of environment and influences belief in ability to change the environment

• Reciprocal Determinism (B E P)• Child is an active learner


BANDURA’S SOCIAL COGNITIVE MODEL


• Contributions of the behavioral and social cognitive theories include:• Their emphasis on the importance of scientific research• Their focus on environmental determinants of behavior• The identification and explanation of observational

learning The inclusion of person/cognitive factors

EVALUATING THE BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORIES


• Criticism• Too little emphasis to cognition • Too much emphasis to environmental determinants

inadequate attention to developmental changes• Inadequate recognition to human spontaneity and

creativity

EVALUATING THE BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORIES


• Ethology: Stresses that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, is tied to evolution, and is characterized by critical or sensitive periods• Concern with instinctive behavior patterns• Influenced by Charles Darwin, & Konrad Lorenz

• Pre-wired—instinctive behavior patterns• Fixed action patterns (FAPs)• Influence of prenatal hormones

• Lorenz’s work on attachment during the first year• Imprinting

ETHOLOGICAL THEORY


THE ECOLOGICAL THEORY

• Explains development through interactions between children and the settings in which they live

• Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917–2005)• Reciprocal interactions between individual and their

environment.• Focus on interactions between parent and child

(bidirectional)


BRONFENBRENNER’S ECOLOGICAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT


A COMPARISON OF THEORIES AND ISSUES IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT


• Scientific research is objective, systematic, and testable

• It reduces the likelihood that information will be based on personal beliefs, opinions, and feelings

THE IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH


• Scientific research is based on the scientific method

• Scientific method: An approach that can be used to obtain accurate information• It includes these steps: • Conceptualize the problem• Collect data• Draw conclusions• Revise research conclusions and theory



• Theory: An interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to explain and make predictions

• Hypothesis: A specific assumption or prediction that can be tested to determine its accuracy



• To be effective, observations have to be systematic

• Where should be observations made?• Laboratory: A controlled setting in which many of the

complex factors of the “real world” are removed• Naturalistic observation: Observing behavior in real-

world settings

OBSERVATION


• Survey and interview • Standardized test – uniform procedures• Case study – in-depth on individual• Physiological measures

OTHER RESEARCH METHODS


• Descriptive research: A research design that has the purpose of observing and recording behavior

• Correlational research: A research design whose goal is to describe the strength of the relationship between two or more events or characteristics• Correlation coefficient: A number based on statistical

analysis that is used to describe the degree of association between two variables

RESEARCH DESIGNS


• Experiment: A carefully regulated procedure in which one or more of the factors believed to influence the behavior being studied are manipulated, while all other factors are held constant• Independent variable (gets manipulated)• Dependent variable (gets measured)• Control group (forms baseline measure)• Experimental group (gets manipulated)• Random assignment (assignment by chance)

RESEARCH DESIGNS


PRINCIPLES OF EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH


• Cross-sectional approach: A research strategy in which individuals of different ages are compared at one time

• Longitudinal approach: A research strategy in which the same individuals are studied over a period of time, usually several years or more

TIME SPAN OF RESEARCH


• Conducting ethical research• Protect rights of research subjects• Do not cause any harm• Adhere to code of ethics• Informed consent• Confidentiality• Debriefing• Deception

RESEARCH CHALLENGES


• Gender bias• Preconceived ideas about female and male abilities,

magnifying differences found

• Cultural and ethnic bias• Excluding minorities, preconceived ideas of not being

‘average’

• Ethnic gloss: Use of ethnic label portraying ethnic groups as more homogeneous than they really are

MINIMIZING BIAS

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Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION © 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved