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Child PsychologyPSY205

Dr. Mandana Ahsani

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Today is about…

• Getting to know each other

• Going over the syllabus

• My expectations

• Your expectations

• Intro to studying children

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• Santrock’s Children Website

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073382604/student_view0/

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John W. Santrock

Introduction

1

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Introduction

• Why Is Caring For Children Important?

• What Are Some Historical Views of Child Development?

• What Characterizes Development?

• How Is Child Development a Science?

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• The Importance of Studying Children’s Development

• Development – pattern of change from conception, throughout the life span– Our approach is chronological approach

(as opposed to topical)

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Biological and Cognitive Processes

• Biological processes – changes in individual’s body; genes and hormones

• Cognitive processes – changes in individual’s thought, intelligence, and language

What Characterizes Development?

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Socioemotional Processes

• Changes in an individual’s emotions, personality, and relationships

What Characterizes Development?

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Biological, Cognitive, and Socioemotional Processes

Fig. 1.5

All three processes

are intricately intertwined

What Characterizes Development?

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Periods of Development

PrenatalInfancy

Early childhood

Middle\late childhood

Adolescence

Conception to birthBirth to 18–24 months

24 months to 5–6 years(preschool years)

6 years to 11 years(elementary school years)

Ages 10–12 to ages 18–22

What Characterizes Development?

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Caring for Children

• Children affected by– Quality of prenatal care– Parents’ lifestyles: during and after

pregnancy– Power of psychological states

Why Is Caring For Children Important?

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Improving the Lives of Today’s Children

• Health and Well-Being– The power of psychological states in

health and well being

• Parenting

• Education

Why Is Caring For Children Important?

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• Sociocultural context – various settings– Culture – passed from generation to

generation • Cross-cultural studies

– Ethnicity• Characteristics based on race, cultural heritage,

nationality, religion, language

Why Is Caring For Children Important?

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• Socioeconomic status (SES): – people similar in occupational, educational,

and economic characteristics

Why Is Caring For Children Important?

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Gender

• Sex is a biological dimension

• Gender is psychological and sociocultural dimension of being female or male

Why Is Caring For Children Important?

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Early Views of Children

What Are Some Historical Views of Child Development?

• In medieval times: no distinction between children and adults

• Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome held rich conceptions of children’s development

• Three influential philosophical views

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Original sin

Tabula rasa

Innate goodness

Children born into the world as evil beings

John Locke: children are like a “blank tablet”

Rousseau: children are inherently good

Early Views of Children

What Are Some Historical Views of Child Development?

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Modern Study of Child Development

Arnold Gesell

G. Stanley Hall

Sigmund Freud

Certain characteristics “bloom” with age

Development follows evolutionary course

Children rarely aware of motives and reasons for their behaviors

What Are Some Historical Views of Child Development?

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Modern Study of Child Development

John Watson

James Mark Baldwin

Children shaped into whatever society wishes by environment

Pioneer in study of children's thought;genetic epistemology – how child’s knowledge changes over development

What Are Some Historical Views of Child Development?

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Processes and Periods of Development

Fig. 1.6

Middle and late childhood AdolescenceInfancy

Early childhoodPrenatal period

Processes of development

What Characterizes Development?

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Core Issues in Child Development

• Nature and nurture

• Continuity and discontinuity

Discontinuity

Continuity

What Characterizes Development?

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Core Issues in Child Development

• Early–later experience issue

– Focus on which are key determinants of child’s development

– Hotly debated by developmentalists

– People in Western cultures contrast with the majority of people in the world

What Characterizes Development?

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Evaluating the Developmental Issues

• Unwise to take extreme position on– Nature and nurture– Continuity and discontinuity– Early and later experiences

• All characterize development through the human life span

What Characterizes Development?

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Importance of Research

How is Child Development a Science?

• Scientific method

– Conceptualize a problem– Use theories to develop a hypothesis– Collect the data– Use statistical procedures to analyze– Draw conclusions– Compare findings; revise theory, conclusions

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How Is Child Development a Science?

• Science defined not by what it investigates, but by how it investigates

• Theory: interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps explain and predict

• Hypotheses: specific, testable assumptions and predictions that are derived from theories

How Is Child Development a Science?

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The Scientific Research Approach

• Scientific method – Used to discover

accurate information

Conceptualize problem

Revise conclusions and theory

Draw conclusions

Collect information (data)

The Importance of Research in Child Development

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Five Major Theories

• Psychoanalytic

• Cognitive

• Behavioral and social cognitive

• Ethological

• Ecological

What Are the Main Theories of Child Development?

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Psychoanalytic Theories

• Describe development as:– Primarily unconscious– Heavily colored by emotion– Behavior is surface characteristic– Analyze symbolic workings of mind– Emphasize early experiences– Biological process important here

What Are the Main Theories of Child Development?

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Erikson’sPsychosocial Theory

• Eight stages of development

– Primary human motivation is social

– Eight stages unfold over the life span

– At each stage, unique developmental task confronts individuals with crisis that must be resolved

What Are the Main Theories of Child Development?

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Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory

• Children actively construct their understanding of the world

– Assimilation: incorporation of new information into existing knowledge

– Accommodation: adjusting knowledge to fit new information and experience

What Are the Main Theories of Child Development?

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Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Cognitive Theory

• Culture guides cognitive development

• Knowledge is situated and collaborative

• Memory, attention, reasoning involves learning to use society’s inventions

What Are the Main Theories of Child Development?

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Behavioral Theories

• Three approaches: Pavlov, Skinner, and Bandura

• Observations in controlled labs

– Behavior: observable and measurable

– Behavior is learned from experience with the environment

What Are the Main Theories of Child Development?

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Ethological Theory

• Behavior

– Influenced by biology, tied to evolution

– Characterized by critical or sensitive periods

– Lorenz: imprinting is rapid, innate learning within a critical period of time

– Bowlby’s view of attachment

What Are the Main Theories of Child Development?

© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Ecological Theory

• Bronfenbrenner’s view that development influenced by five environmental systems:– Microsystem– Mesosystem– Exosystem

• Now a “bioecological” theory

What Are the Main Theories of Child Development?

– Macrosystem

– Chronosystem

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Methods for Collecting Data

• Observation– Laboratory: controlled, unnatural setting

– Naturalistic observation: observing behavior in real-world settings; no control or manipulation

– Survey and interviews: clear, unbiased questions

What Are the Main Research Methods in Child Development?

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Methods for Collecting Data

• Standardized test: test with uniform procedures for administration, scoring

• Case study

• Psychophysiological measures– Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)– Electroencephalogram (EEG)

What Are the Main Research Methods in Child Development?

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Research Designs

• Descriptive research: observes and records behavior

• Correlational research: strength of relationship between two or more events or characteristics

– Correlation coefficient: degree of association between two variables

What Are the Main Research Methods in Child Development?

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Possible Explanations for Correlational Data

What Are the Main Research Methods in Child Development?

Fig. 1.16

Possible explanations for this correlation

causes

Observed correlation

and

causes

cause

both

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Research Designs

• Experimental Research

– Experiment: carefully regulated procedure

• Independent and dependent variables

• Experimental and control groups

• Experimental and control groups

• Random assignment

What Are the Main Research Methods in Child Development?

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Principles of the Experimental Strategy

What Are the Main Research Methods in Child Development?

Dependent variable

Independent variable

Fig. 1.17

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Time Span of Research

• Cross-sectional approach: individuals of different ages are compared at one time

• Longitudinal approach: same individuals studied over period of time, usually several years or more

• Research Journals

What Are the Main Research Methods in Child Development?

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The End

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