CHILD

MACROSYSTEM

Attitudes and ideologies of the culture

EXOSYSTEMExtended family

MESOSYSTEM

Friends offamily

Neighbors

Family School

Healthservices Peers

Churchgroup

Neighborhoodplay area

Daycarecenter

Massmedia

Legalservices

Social welfareservices

MICROSYSTEM

Bronfenbrenner's Four Ecological Settings for Development Change

How much does development simply

continue earlier acquisitions, and how

much does it lead to qualitatively new

behaviors and skills?

CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY

• NATURE: Inborn qualities of a person;

qualities acquired through genetic

inheritance or heredity

• NURTURE: Qualities of a person

acquired as a result of experiences

and environmental influences

NATURE AND NURTURE

How much can developmental

psychology identify developmental

changes that happen throughout the

world, and how much should it take

specific human and cultural contexts

into account?

UNIVERSAL AND CONTEXT-SPECIFIC

DEVELOPMENT

Are certain developmental changes

and milestones inherently more

desirable than others?

DEFICIT AND DIFFERENCE

THE WHOLE DEVELOPING PERSON DIVIDED INTO "PIES"

P

S

I

E

PHYSICAL

INTELLECTUAL

EMOTIONAL

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Created by C.E. Stull, PhD.

Genetics, Heredity, Biology

KANT: Early preformation theory. We are born with potential that just unfolds. We have a priori understanding. Molds exist in e mind, integrating experiences

ROUSSEAU: Children born with sense of right and wrong, just allow them to develop.

GALTON: Coined expression “nature vs. nurture.” Believed “Hereditary Genius” eminence runs in families. Proponent of the Eugenics movement to improve human race.

PIAGET: Universal cognitive maturational stages

FREUD: psychosexual stages

CHOMSKY: prewired L.A.D. (language acquisition device)

Behavioral geneticists

Environment, Experience, Learning

LOCKE (1690): “tabula rasa”

J. S. Mill: A Child prodigy who attributed his genius to training.

PAVLOV (1904): Classical conditioning

J. B. WATSON: “Little Albert” behaviorist study

B. F. SKINNER: operant conditioning

Philosophers on Nature vs. Nurture

1. Focus on a topicmake careful observations and review literature.

2. Formulate a hypothesis.

3. Test the hypothesis via: Laboratory experiments, which include

• Operational definitions

• Control groups

• Cross-sectional, longitudinal, or sequential design Naturalistic studies Surveys Interviews Case Studies Correlational Studies

4. Collect and analyze data

5. Draw conclusions

6. Make results available

Scientific Method

Advantages and Disadvantages of Information-Gathering Approaches

Design Description Advantages Disadvantages

Naturalistic Observations

Observations of behaviorsas they occur in children'sreal-life environments.

Observations of behaviors in situations constructed by the experimenter.

Asking children (or parents) about what they know or how they behave.

Statistical analysis of other researchers' findings to look for the size of a variable's effects.

Structured Observations

Meta-analyticStudies

Interviews and Questionnaires

Can note antecedents and consequences of behaviors; see real-life behaviors.

More control over conditions that elicit behaviors.

Quick way to assess children's knowledge or reports of their behaviors.

Pool a large body of research findings to sort out conflicting findings; no participants are observed.

Possibility of participant reactivity and observer bias; less control over variables; cause-and-effect relation-ships difficult to establish.

Children may not react as they would in real life.

Children may not always respond truthfully or accurately; systematic comparisons of responses may be difficult; theoretical orientation of researcher and interpretations of answers.

Requires careful mathematical computation; variables may not have been defined identically across all studies.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Research Designs

Design Description Strengths Weaknesses

CorrelationalDesign

Researcher sees if changes in one variable are accompanied by systematic changes in another variable.

Researcher manipulates one of more independent variables to observe the effects on the dependent variable(s).

Experiment conducted in real-life, naturalistic settings.

Assignment of participants to groups is determined by their natural experiences

ExperimentalDesign

Quasi-experiment

Field Experiment

Useful when conditions do not permit the manipulation of variables.

Can isolate cause-and-effect relationships.

Can isolate cause-and-effect relationships; behaviors are observed in natural settings.

Takes advantage of natural separation of children into groups.

Cannot determine cause-and-effect relationships.

May not yield information about real-life behaviors.

Less control over treatment conditions.

Factors other than independent variables may be causing results.

In-depth observation of one or a few children over a period of time.

Single-CaseDesign

Do not require large pool of participants.

Ability to generalize to the larger population may be limited.

Strategies for Assessing Developmental Change

Approach

LongitudinalStudy

Repeated testing of the same group of children over an extended period of time.

Comparison of children of different ages at the same point in time.

Observation of children of two or more different ages over a shorter period of time when in longitudinal studies.

Cross-Sectional Study

Sequential Study

Can examine the stability of characteristics.

Requires less time; less costly than longitudinal study.

Combines the advantages of both longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches; can obtain information about stability of traits in a short period of time.

Requires a significant investment of time and resources; problems with participant attrition; can have age-history confound.

Cannot study individual patterns of development or the stability of traits; subject to cohort effects.

Has same problems as longitudinal studies; but to a lesser degree.

Description Advantages Disadvantages

Act

s of

agg

ress

ion

Less

Exposure to violent TVLess

POSITIVE CORRELATION

More

More

Illne

sses

Less

More

Crim

es

Less

More

Optimism scoresLow

NEGATIVE CORRELATION

HighPhases of the moonNew

ZERO CORRELATION

Full

Y is the dependent variable(such as test scores, number of errors, speed, muscle contractions, aggressive acts, etc.)

Xs are independent variables(such as age, sex, drug, intelligence, etc., and the experimental treatment)

Dependent and Independent Variables

Y = fx(x1, x2, x3, … xn)

68% of the scores95% of the scores

-2 -1 0

10068 116 13284IQ

Standard deviations+1 +2

(B) THENORMALDISTRIBUTIONOF IQ

(A) NORMALDISTRIBUTION,SHOWING THESMOOTHEDAPPROXIMATION TOTHE FREQUENCYHISTOGRAM

• Confidentiality

• Full disclosure of purposes

• Respect for children's and parents' freedom to participate

• Informed consent

• In loco parentis

ETHICAL CONSTRAINTS ON STUDYING CHILD DEVELOPMENT