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Nature, Theory, & Research in Human Development

Chapter 1

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Basic Developmental Concepts

• Development: age-related changes that are orderly, cumulative, and directional

• Behavioral Reorganization: a qualitative change in the way a developing child organizes and uses his or her capabilities (stage)

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Basic Developmental Concepts

• Qualitative changes: novel ability emerges that can’t be measured with a previous standard of measurement– Ex: Babbling babies eventually learn to

say actual words– Ex: Egocentric toddlers become young

adults with empathy for others

• Quantitative changes: when change can be measured using same standard of measurement before– Ex: Toddlers learning to walk

eventually walk across the room– Ex: Attention span changes from 15

minutes to 50 minutes

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Basic Developmental Concepts

• 2 ideas about how children develop

– Continuous development: changes are small and gradual, difficult to notice change

– Discontinuous development: changes are made in steps and stages, easy to notice change

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Basic Developmental Concepts

• Normative development: typical or average development of all children

• Individual development: variations around the normative course of development

• Development is influenced by:– 1) Genetics– 2) Developmental history– 3) Environment

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Periods of Development

• Prenatal Period: conception to birth

• Infancy and toddlerhood: 0-2 years

• Early childhood: 2-7 years

• Middle childhood: 7-11 years

• Adolescence: 11-20 years

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Historical Foundations

• John Locke (1600s)– Children are tabula rasas: totally blank slates to be

written on by life’s experiences

• Jean Jacques Rousseau (1700s)– Human development unfolds naturally in stages as

long as society allows it to do so

• Charles Darwin (1800s)– Through natural selection, humans have acquired

common traits that have helped us to adapt and increase our chances of survival

– Ex: babies are cute so people want to care for them

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Modern Theories

• Scientific beginnings (1900s)

• Nature/nurture interaction– Genetic influences can unfold only within an

environmental context– Environmental influences need a base of

genetic potentials to work– The major issue today is exactly how genes,

developmental history, and environment interact

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Cognitive Theories of Development

Piaget

• Normative cognitive development from birth to 12 years

• Children are active learners (not passive)

• Growth occurs on spurts

• Major shifts in thinking took place at approximately 2, 7, and 12 years of age

Information-Processing

• Compare thoughts to the workings of a computer

• Improvements in attention, memory, and thinking

Sociocultural

• Vygotsky

• Study the social and cultural processes in which thinking originates

• Zone of proximal development: children rely on older children and adults to teach them

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Social-Emotional Theories of Development

Psychoanalytic

• Freud & Erikson

• Early emotional experiences are very powerful and can influence later development

• Freud: 5 stagesErikson: 8 stages

Social-Learning

• Bandura

• Children tend to repeat behaviors that result in rewards or help them to avoid unpleasant consequences

• Modeling: learning comes from observing others

Adaptational

• Bowlby

• Babies are predisposed to behave in ways that promote closeness with their caregivers

• Attachments are biologically built in and it unfolds through a sequence of stages

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Why so many theories?

• Different theories focus on different aspects of development

• Our knowledge of human development is a work in progress

• Theories disagree on:– Gradual development vs. stages– Early vs. current experiences– Specificity vs. generality

• Refer to Table 1.3 on p. 22 to compare various theories

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Developmental Research

• Goals of Research– To describe– To explain– To predict– To influence

• Types of Research– Experimental– Non-experimental

research

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Ethical Considerations for Child Development Research

• Family’s physical and mental health/safety– Ex: studying effects of child abuse, rape, domestic

violence

• Informed Consent– Ex: parents’ permission to test ADHD medication,

permission to spank children in school

• Right to refuse or withdraw from study– Ex: parents can stop medication study at any time,

parents can not allow their child to be spanked

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Ethical Research

• Institutional Review Board at UMD

http://www.umresearch.umd.edu/IRB/index.htm

• Oversee all UMD research projects to ensure that participants’ rights are protected at all times