A Childs World: How We Discover It

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A Childs WorldHow We Discover It

• Chapter 2

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
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Chapter main points

• 1. The purpose of theory in understanding child
  development
• 2. Basic theoretical issues on which
  developmental scientists differ
• 3. Five theoretical perspectives on child
  development
• 4. Research methods used to study childrens
  development
• 5. Ethical problems that might arise in research
  on children.

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What purposes do theories serve?

• Theory set of logically related concepts seeking
  to describe or explain development and predict
  future behaviors
• A valid theory
• Is sensible and consistent.
• Organizes, integrates, and makes sense of a body
  of research findings.
• Must be testable.
• Hypotheses tentative explanations or predictions
  that can be tested by research

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Basic Theoretical Issues

• Issue 1 How Do Heredity and Environment Affect
  Development?
• Issue 2 Are Children Active or Passive in
  Their Development?
• Issue 3 Is Development Continuous, or Does It
  Occur in Stages?

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An emerging consensus of theory of child
development

• An Emerging Consensus
• Developmentalists are coming to a more balanced
  view of active versus passive development
• Influence is bidirectional children change their
  world even as it changes them
• Development as a combination of the 3 types of
  theoretical issues.
• E.g., innate temperament will affect the
  envirornmental reaction helping to advance the
  child through psychosocial stages

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Five Perspectives on Human Development
Table 2.1
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Theoretical Perspectives Psychoanalytic (Freud
and Erikson)

• Freud Psychosexual development in five stages
• Fixation occurs when children receive too little
  or too much gratification in any of these stages
• Three parts to personality id, ego, and superego
• Id Pleasure Principle--demands immediate
  satisfaction
• Ego Reality Principle--can delay gratification
• Superego development of conscience
• Erikson modified Freuds theory to emphasize
  social influences on development
• Psychosocial development occurs in eight stages
  across the life span
• Each stage requires balance of positive trait vs.
  corresponding negative one through the resolution
  of conflict

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Theoretical Perspectives Learning
(Behaviorism, Social Learning)

• Behaviorism
• Classical Conditioning Pavlov and Watson
• Association of an unconditioned stimulus, (meat)
  with a neutral stimulus (bell) to form a
  conditioned response (salivation)
• Operant Conditioning Skinner
• Reinforced behaviors tend to be repeated
• Punished behaviors tend to be decreased
• Social Learning (Social-Cognitive) Theory
• Albert Bandura observational learning
• People learn from imitating others modeling or
  observational learning
• Imitation is involved in learning language,
  dealing with aggression, developing a moral
  sense, and learning gender-appropriate behaviors

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Theoretical Perspectives Cognition (Piaget,
Info. Processing)

• Piagets Cognitive-Stage Theory
• Qualitative changes in the way children think
• Individuals organize information into schemes
• Adaptation of new information by assimilation,
  accommodation and equillibration
• Progression of skills through 4 qualitatively
  different stages
• Information-Processing Approach
• Compares the brain to a computer
• People are active thinkers about their world, not
  passive computers
• Psychologists can use information-processing
  models to test, diagnose, and treat learning
  problems

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Is development continuous, or does it occur in
stages? Piagets theory of cognitive development
and an information processing view of cognition
Fig. 2.1
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Theoretical Perspectives Cognition
(Neuroscience)

• Cognitive Neuroscience Approach
• Cognitive functioning is linked to what happens
  in brain
• Seeks to explain how cognitive growth results
  from the brain-environment interaction
• Social cognitive neuroscience links brain, mind,
  and behavior

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Theoretical Perspectives Evolutionary/Sociobiolog
ical

• Focuses on biology and evolution
• People unconsciously strive to perpetuate their
  genetic legacy
• Seek to identify universal behaviors and those
  which are modified by ones culture
• Seek to identify age-specific adaptive behaviors
• Parent-Child Attachment John Bowlby

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Theoretical Perspectives Contextual

• Development is understood in social/
  environmental interactions only
• Brofenbrenners Bioecological Theory
• microsystem
• mesosystem
• exosystem
• macrosystem
• chronosystem
• Lev Vygotskys Sociocultural Theory
• Child growth is collaborative process
• Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
• Scaffolding

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Bronfenbrenners Bioecological Theory
Fig. 2.2
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Goals of Developmental Research

• To describe
• To explain
• To predict
• To influence

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Research Methods

• Quantitative research
• hard, objectively-measurable data
• scientific method 5 general steps
• Usually conducted in laboratories, controlled
• Qualitative research
• soft data, subjective experiences, feelings, or
  beliefs
• open-ended and exploratory

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Research Methods

• Sampling
• sample a representative group taken from the
  population (random selection is best)
• Forms of Data Collection
• Self-Reports Diaries, Interviews, Questionnaires
• Behavioral and Performance Measures
• Naturalistic and Laboratory Observation

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Basic Research Designs

• Case Studies
• Ethnographic Studies
• Correlational Studies (relationships not cause
  and effect)
• Experiments
• Groups and Variables
• Laboratory, Field, and Natural Experiments

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Studying Change Over Time
Longitudinal study A study following a group of
subjects over a period of time.
Cross-sectional study A study comparing groups
of people of different ages at the same time.
Accelerated longitudinal study Combination of
cross-sectional and longitudinal designs where
several age groups can be followed over time
simultaneously.
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Common developmental designs
2006
2010
2008
2004
Fig. 2.5
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How would you study.

• If playing video games increased 5-8 year old
  boys interest in guns?
• If self esteem in girls changes from 5th grade to
  8th grade to 12th grade?
• If mothers assessment of their babies fussiness
  affects how frequently they pick them up when
  they are crying.

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Ethics of Research

• Informed consent/
• Parent permission
• Avoidance of deception
• Protection of participants from harm and loss of
  dignity
• Guarantees of privacy and confidentiality
• Right to decline or withdraw from experiment
• Responsibility of investigators to correct
  undesirable effects

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Social Toxicity (Garbarino lecture)

• Individual vulnerability to a poisonous
  environment
• Vulnerable kids will be as bad as the social
  environment offers up, models, reinforces,
  instigates, and encourages them to do
• In assessing neighborhood quality in promoting
  positive youth development, consider the strength
  of ties and collective efficacy
• Consider poisonous pedagogy behavior that is
  culturally normative from a larger view is seen
  as harmful (e.g., bullying)

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Social Toxins (Garbarino lecture)

• Racism, sexism, homophobism convey hatred and
  rejection
• Violence in the media
• Social inequality
• Nexus of health and lifestyle (e.g., obesity)
• Erosion of benevolent older authority
• Southern Culture of Honor
• Shallow value of materialism