Chapter 1:

The Science of Child Development

Chapter 1: The Science of Child Development

Chapter 1 contains four modules:

Module 1.1 Setting the Stage

Module 1.2 Foundational Theories of Child Development

Module 1.3 Themes in Child-Development Research

Module 1.4 Doing Child Development Research

Setting the Stage

Philosophers have long speculated on the nature of childhood

• Plato • Aristotle• Locke• Rousseau

Do you know the difference between each view?

Historical Views of Children and Childhood

Historical Views of Children and Childhood

Reform During Industrial Revolution

• Rural to urban transformation• Child workers

Origins of a New Science

Darwin• Detailed, systematic observations (baby biographies)

• Application of child-development research

Origins of a New Science

New Science Leaders•G. Stanley Hall•Binet•Freud•Watson and Skinner

New Organization and Journal•SRCD•Applied Developmental Psychology

Origins of a New Science

Foundational Theories of Child Development

• Organized set of ideas designed to explain and predict

• Leads to hypotheses that are tested, then confirmed or rejected

What is a theory?

Important theorist and concepts

Lorenz• Critical period• Imprinting

Can you provide an example for each?

Biological Perspective

Development is determined by how child resolves conflicts at different ages

Freud• Psychosexual development• Components of personality

Psychodynamic Perspective

Development is determined by how a child resolves conflicts at different ages

Erikson• Psychosocial development• Stages with psychosocial crises

Psychodynamic Perspective

Early learning theories emphasized the importance of experience in development

B.F. Skinner• Operant conditioning• Reinforcement and punishment

Learning Perspective

Other learning theorists suggested that children can learn by observing others

Bandura• Social cognitive theory• Imitation or observational learning

Learning Perspective

Development reflects children’s efforts to understand the world

Jean Piaget• Four-stage sequence• Child as scientist and theorist• Cognition more sophisticated with age

The Cognitive-Developmental Perspective

Development is determined by immediate and more distant environments, which typically influence each other

Lev Vygotsky• Importance of cultural context

Contextual Perspective

Themes in Child Development Research

Early Development is Related to Later Development

The continuity-discontinuity issue:

Development is not completely rigid, nor completely flexible!

Development is Jointly Influenced by Heredity and Environment

The nature-nurture issue:

Major goal of child development research is to understand joint contributions of

heredity and environment.

Children Influence Their Own Development

The active-passive child issue:

Can you think of ways in which both may apply to children’s cognitive development?

Development in Different Domains is Connected

Doing Child Development Research

Measurement in Child-Development Research

Decision Points• How to measure phenomenon of interest• How to design study• How to respect rights of human subjects• How to communicate results to other

researchers

Measurement in Child-Development Research

Approaches

• Systematic observation

• Sampling behavior with tasks

• Self report

• Physiological response measurement

Evaluating Measurement in Child-Development Research

Measurement Methods• Reliability• Validity

Representative Sampling• Populations• Samples

General Designs for Research

Research Design: Correlational Studies• View of relations as these exist in real world• Expressed as a correlation coefficient, r, that

ranges from -1 to 1 • Positive correlation vs. negative correlation

Can you interpret the correlation coefficient on the next slide?

Three Interpretations of a Correlation Coefficient

General Designs for Research

Research Design: Experimental Studies• Experiments systematically manipulate key

variables selected by investigator

• Field experiments• Quasi-experiments

Look for the independent and dependent variables on the next slide.

Example of an Experiment

Designs for Studying Age-Related Changes

Research Designs: Age-Related Changes• Longitudinal design

• Microgenetic study

• Cross-sectional design

• Longitudinal-sequential studies

Longitudinal Study

• Same children observed/tested repeatedly at different points in their lives

• Microgenetic studies

Cross-Sectional Study

• Children of different ages tested at one point in their development

• Developmental changes identified

Longitudinal-Sequential Study

• Different sequence of children tested longitudinally

Designs for Studying Age-Related Changes

Research Designs: Meta-analysis• Synthesize results of many studies to estimate

relations between variables

• Determine whether finding generalizes across many studies that used different methods

Ethical Responsibilities

Why are ethics important in research?• Minimize risks to research participants• Describe the research to potential participants• Avoid deceiving participants• Keep results anonymous or confidential

Communicating Research Results

• Research results reported in scientific journals

• Results of individual studies in text will be reported in the Focus on Research features of the text