Chapter One: The Study of Human Development

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Chapter One The Study of Human Development

• The Life-Span Perspective
• The scientific study of human development is the
  science that seeks to understand how and why
  people change, and how and why they remain the
  same, as they grow older. The Scientific
  Method
• The life-span perspective includes five distinct
  characteristics of development.
• Multidirectional. Change is not always linear.
  Gains and losses, compensations and deficits,
  predictable growth and expected transformations
  are part of the human experience
• Multicontextual. Human life must be understood
  as embedded in many contexts.
• Multicultural. Culture must be understood and
  its impact on human development.
• Multidisciplinary. Many different academic
  fields contribute data and insight into human
  development.
• Plastic. Human traits can be altered at any
  point in the life span.

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The Life-Span Perspective- cont

• Empirical
• Empirical is the premise that knowledge
  should be acquired through direct observation
  rather than on reasoning, speculation,
  traditional beliefs, or common sense.
• Empiricalism lends itself to skepticism
• Theoretically Diverse
• A theory is a system of interrelated ideas used
  to explain a set of observations. A theory
  links apparently unrelated observations and
  tries to explain them.
• Evolves in a Sociohistorical Context
• Trends, issues, and values in society influence
  psychology's evolution. Reciprocally,
  psychology influences trends, issues, and
  values in society

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Themes Related to Psychology as a Field of Study

• Determined by Multiple Causes
• Behavior is governed by a complex network of
  interacting factors, an idea referred to as the
  multifactoral causation of behavior.
• Behavior is Shaped by Cultural Heritage
• Culture refers to the widely shared customs,
  beliefs, values, norms, institutions, and other
  products of a community that are transmitted
  socially across generations.
• Heredity and Environment Jointly Influence
  Behavior
• Heredity and environment are important in
  influencing behavior
• Peoples Experience of the World is Highly
  Subjective
• People actively process incoming stimulation,
  selectively focusing on some aspects of that
  stimulation while ignoring others.

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The Domains of Human Development

• Physical (Biosocial) Development. The part of
  human development that includes physical growth
  and development as well as the family, community,
  and cultural factors that affect that growth and
  development.
• Intellectual (Cognitive) Development. The part
  of human development that includes all the mental
  processes through which the individual thinks,
  learns, and communicates, plus the institutions
  involved in learning and communicating.
• Psychosocial Development. The part of human
  development that includes emotions, personality
  characteristics, and relationships with other
  people - family, friends, lovers, and strangers.
  This domain also includes the larger community
  and the culture.

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Contexts and Systems

• Human development originates within was well as
  without. Taken together, these external forces
  form the contexts, or systems, or environments.
• Urie Bronfenbrenner, a developmental
  psychologist, was one of the first to describe
  the various systems that surround each developing
  person. These forces are multidirectional and
  interactive. The Family as a System
• The Microsystems are systems that intimately and
  immediately shape human development (family, peer
  group, classroom, neighborhood).
• The Exosystems includes all external networks,
  such as community, educational, medical networks
  (community structures, educational systems).
• The Mesosystem includes the overlap between
  family and community (coordination between child
  and teacher).
• The Macrosystem includes the political, economic,
  and social systems (Cultural values, political
  philosophies, social conditions).

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The Ecological Model
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Contexts and Systems cont

• The complexity theory and the chaos theory are
  used to explain the interaction between various
  systems and its impact on human development.
  This interaction is best illustrated by the
  butterfly effect (Does the Flap of a Butterflys
  Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?)
• Overlapping Contexts
• The Historical Context - cohorts.
• Values as a Social Construction. An idea built
  more on the shared perceptions of a society
  than on objective reality.
• Socioeconomic status (SES) influences many of
  the social interactions and opportunities a
  person might have.

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The Social Context
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Contexts and Systems cont

• The Cultural Context, which includes hundreds
  of specific manifestations of a social
  groups design for living.
• Socioeconomic Status (SES) A broad social-class
  ranking based on occupational status, family
  prestige, educational attainment, and earned
  income. (Kornblum,1997)
• Cultures Poor and Rural, Rich and Urban
• Ethnicity and Culture.
• The Person within the Systems
• Developmental Study as a Science
• Steps in the Scientific Method
• Formulate a research question
• Develop a hypothesis
• Test the hypothesis
• Draw conclusions
• Make the findings available
• Research Methods
• Observation a.    Naturalistic observation
  b.    Laboratory observation c.    Evaluation
  of observational studies

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Research Methods

• Correlation. A correlation between two or more
  variables.
• Positive correlation
• Negative correlation
• The Experimental Method
• Variables. Independent and dependent.
• Groups. Experimental and control.            
• Other Research Methods
• The Survey
• Case Study
• Cross-sectional. A research design in which
  groups of people, each group different from
  the others in age but similar to them in other
  important ways are compared.
• Longitudinal Studies. A research design in
  which the same people are studied over a long
  time (which might range from months to
  decades) to measure both change and stability at
  they age.   

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Research Methods - cont

• Cross-sequential research. A design that
  combines cross-sectional and longitudinal
  methods.
• Ethics and Science
• Informed consent
• Deception
• Self-esteem
• Privacy
• Ethical Standards