Heredity and Conception Truth or Fiction?

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Chapter 1History, Theories, and Methods
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History, Theories, and Methods Truth or Fiction?

• During the Middle Ages, children were often
  treated as miniature adults.
• Children come into the world as blank tablets
  without inborn differences in intelligence and
  talents.

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History, Theories, and Methods Truth or Fiction?

• Nail-biting and smoking cigarettes are signs of
  conflict experienced during early childhood.
• Some theorists contend that children actively
  strive to understand and take charge of their
  worlds, whereas other theorists argue that
  children respond passively to environmental
  stimulation.

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History, Theories, and Methods Truth or Fiction?

• Research with monkeys has helped psychologists
  understand the formation of attachment in humans.
• In order to learn how a person develops over a
  lifetime, researchers have tracked some
  individuals for more than 50 years.

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What Is Child Development?
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What Is Child Development?

• Periods of Development
• Conception and Prenatal
• Infancy
• Early Childhood
• Middle Childhood
• Adolescence

• Dimensions of Development
• Physiological
• Cognitive
• Social
• Emotional
• Behavioral

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What Is Child Development?

• Attempts to advance knowledge of the processes
  that govern the development of childrens
• physical structures,
• traits,
• behaviors, and
• cognitions.
• Growth represents quantitative changes
• Development represents qualitative changes

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Why Do Researchers Study Child Development?

• Gain insight into
• human nature,
• origins of adult behavior,
• origins of differences,
• origins, prevention and treatment of
  developmental problems
• Optimize conditions of development

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What Views of Children Do We Find Throughout
History?

• Ancient Times and Middle Ages
• Children viewed as innately evil
• Age 7 is the age of reason
• Children were treated as miniature adults
• John Locke
• Child came into world as tabula rasa, or blank
  slates
• Focus on role of environment and experience
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Children are inherently good and moral

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What Views of Children Do We Find Throughout
History?

• Industrial Revolution
• Nuclear family
• Childhood is recognized as a time period of life
• 20th Century
• Child rights in labor, education, neglect

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Pioneers in the Study of Child Development

• Charles Darwin (1809 1882)
• Theory of evolution
• Use of baby biography
• G. Stanley Hall (1944 - 1924)
• Child development as a academic discipline
• Questionnaire methodology with children
• Alfred Binet (1857 1911)
• First standardized intelligence test

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Theories of Child Development
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What Are Theories?

• Related sets of statements about events
• Include descriptive terms and concepts
• Based on certain assumptions
• Allow explanations and predictions
• Wide range of applicability
• Influence events

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Why Do We Have Theories?

• Theories of development help us
• describe,
• explain,
• predict, and
• influence events being studied.

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The Psychoanalytic Perspective

• Freuds theory of psychosexual development
• Eriksons theory of psychosocial development
• View children (and adults) involved in conflict
• internal drive and urges
• internalize external demands and rules
• Stage theories
• distinct periods of development

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Freuds Theory of Psychosexual Development

• Sigmund Freud (1856 1939)
• Levels of awareness
• Conscious level
• Preconscious level
• Unconscious level
• Parts of personality
• Id
• Ego
• Superego
• Quantity of gratification at each stage
• Fixated at that stage

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Stages of Psychosexual Theory of Development

• Oral Stage
• Sucking and biting
• Early weaning or breast-fed too long
• Fixation nail-biting, smoking, biting wit
• Anal Stage
• Control and elimination of waste
• Excessive strict or permissive toilet training
• Fixation anal-retentive (neatness)
  anal-expulsion (sloppiness)

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Stages of Psychosexual Theory of Development

• Phallic Stage
• Parent-child conflict over masturbation
• View same sex parent as rival
• Latency Stage
• Sexual feelings remain unconscious
• Genital Stage
• Begins at adolescence
• Desire sexual gratification through intercourse
  with member of other sex
• Interest in any other sexual gratification
  indicates fixation at an earlier stage of
  development

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Evaluation of Psychosexual Theory of Development

• Major contribution to 20th century thought
• Comprehensive theory of childhood
• Influenced parents, child-care workers and
  educators
• Based on patients (women) who were emotionally
  troubled
• Little empirical data
• Placed too much emphasis on instincts and
  unconscious motives
• Erik Erikson and Karen Horney

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Eriksons Theory of Psychosocial Development

• Erik Erikson (1902 1994)
• modified and expanded Freuds theory
• successful resolution of life crises bolsters
  sense of identity
• Differences from psychosexual development
• focus on development of self-identity
• includes conscious and purposeful acts in
  development
• extended stages to eight throughout adulthood

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Stages of Psychosocial Development

• Trust versus Mistrust
• Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt
• Initiative versus Guilt
• Industry versus Inferiority
• Identity versus Role Diffusion
• Intimacy versus Isolation
• Generativity versus Stagnation
• Ego Integrity versus Despair

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Evaluation of Psychosocial Development

• Highly appealing
• emphasize choice and minimize urges
• portray people as prosocial and giving
• Unified view of life span development
• Some empirical support

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The Learning Perspective Behavioral and Social
Cognition Theories

• Mechanical learning by association
• Conditioning
• Intentional learning
• Rote and trail-and-error learning
• Observational learning

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What Is the Theory of Behaviorism?

• John Watson
• Only address observable behavior
• Contributions to behaviorism
• Classical Conditioning
• Operant Conditioning

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Classical Conditioning

• Learning by Association
• Unconditioned Unlearned
• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) elicits
  Unconditioned Response (UCR)
• Introduction of a Neutral Stimulus
• Repeated association of neutral Stimulus and UCS
• Conditioned Learned
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS) elicits Conditioned
  Response (CR)

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Classical Conditioning

• Pavlovs Salivating Dogs
• Food (UCS) elicits Salivation (UCR)
• Clinking of food trays (neutral stimulus)
• Clinking of food trays prior to Food (UCS)
• Clinking of food trays (CS) elicits Salivation
  (CR)
• Application with Children
• Behavior modification

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Figure 1.1 Schematic Representation of Classical
Conditioning
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Operant Conditioning

• Learn to operate on environment because of the
  effects of behavior
• Behavior occurs and then a stimulus is introduced
  that will encourage the repetition of the
  behavior
• B. F. Skinner Reinforcement
• Any stimulus that increases the frequency of the
  behavior they follow

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Principles of Operant Conditioning

• Positive reinforcers
• Something applied that increases the frequency of
  the behavior
• Negative reinforcers
• Something removed that increases the frequency of
  the behavior
• Extinction
• Operant behavior is no longer shown after
  repeated performance of the behavior without
  reinforcement

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Figure 1.2 Positive versus Negative Reinforcers
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Punishment

• Aversive events that decrease the behavior they
  follow
• Usually undesirable for learning
• Does not suggest an alternative, acceptable form
  of behavior
• Tends to suppress undesirable behavior only under
  certain conditions
• Punished children may withdraw from the situation
• Can create anger and hostility
• May generalize too far
• May be imitated as a way of problem solving or
  coping with stress

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A Closer Look

• Operant Conditioning of Vocalizations in Infants

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Figure 1.3 Negative Reinforcers versus
Punishments
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Application of Operant Conditioning

• Shaping
• Teaching complex behaviors
• Socialization of children
• Parent and child
• Child and child
• Teacher and child

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Social Cognitive Theory

• Acquire basic know-how through observational
  learning
• Learning alters childs mental representation of
  environment and influences belief in ability to
  change the environment
• Child is an active learner
• Intentional observation of models for imitation

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Evaluation of Learning Theories

• Meets the goals of describe, explain and predict
  aspects of childrens behavior
• Principles abundant in education and clinical
  application
• Unclear if learning is only mechanical
• Underestimates role of biological-maturation
  factors

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The Cognitive Perspective

• Focus on childrens mental processes
• How children perceive and mentally represent the
  world
• Jean Piaget (1896 1980)
• Cognitive-developmental theory
• Information-processing theory

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Piagets Cognitive-Developmental Theory

• Working with Binet on IQ tests for children,
  Piaget became interested in childrens incorrect
  answers
• Piagets work was not widely read until mid
  1950s
• difficult to understand
• introduced when behaviorism and psychoanalysis
  were popular
• Piagets view of children as little scientists

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Piagets Basic Concepts

• Scheme
• pattern of action involved in acquiring or
  organizing knowledge
• Adaptation
• interaction between child and the environment
• Assimilation
• Respond to new object or event according to
  existing schemes
• Accommodation
• Adjust scheme to a new object or event
• Equilibration
• Process of restoring equilibrium after a period
  of accommodation

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Piagets Stages of Cognitive-Development Theory

• Four major stages
• Sensorimotor
• Preoperational
• Concrete Operational
• Formal Operational
• Stages are universal
• Development is based on childrens interactions
  with their environments
• Influential in many educational settings

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Evaluation of Cognitive-Development Theory

• Piaget may have underestimated childrens
  abilities by age
• Cognitive growth may be more gradual than
  Piagets distinct stages

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Information-Processing Theory

• Influenced by the concepts of computer science
• Process of encoding information (input)
• Storage of information (long-term memory)
• Retrieval of information (short-term memory)
• Manipulation of information to solve problems
  (output)
• Software (mental processes)
• Hardware (brain)
• Consider limitations of child
• Short-term memory
• Ability to multi-task
• Applications in education

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The Biological Perspective

• Physical development
• Gains in height and weight
• Development of nervous system
• Developments connected with hormones, heredity
• Ethology

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What Is Ethology?

• Evolution of humans within the animal kingdom
• Influence by Charles Darwin, Konrad Lorenz and
  Niko Tinbergen
• Involves instinctive behavior patterns
• Inborn fixed action patterns (FAPs)
• Evaluation
• Assume instinctive behaviors can be modified
  through learning

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The Ecological Systems Theory

• Explains development through interactions between
  children and the settings in which they live
• Urie Bronfenbrenner
• Reciprocal interactions
• focus on interactions between parent and child
  (bidirectional)
• Five Embedded Systems
• Microsystem
• Mesosystem
• Exosystem
• Macrosystem
• Chronosystem

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Figure 1.4 The Contexts of Human Development
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Developing in a World of Diversity

• Influence of the Macrosystem on the Development
  of Independence

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The Sociocultural Perspective

• View children as social beings who are influenced
  by the cultures in which they live
• Lev Vygotskys (1896 1934) sociocultural theory
• Impact on children of human diversity

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Vygotskys Sociocultural Theory

• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
• range of tasks child can perform with help of
  someone more skilled
• use of conversations, external and internal, to
  guide the learning
• Scaffolding
• Adult provides problem-solving methods until
  child can perform independently
• May also be used by child with peers

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Sociocultural Perspective and Human Diversity

• Awareness of diversity among children
• Ethnicity
• Understanding of childrens family values and
  cultural expectations
• Gender
• Understanding of gender-role expectations
• Sexual Orientation
• Disabilities

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Controversies in Child Development
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The Nature Nurture Controversy

• To what extent is human behavior the results of
• Nature heredity
• Nurture environment
• Orientation toward nature
• Cognitive-development theory
• Biological theorists
• Orientation toward nurture
• Learning theories
• Contemporary view of both nature and nurture

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The Continuity Discontinuity Controversy

• Do developmental changes occur
• continuously (gradually)
• discontinuously (major qualitative leaps)
• Orientation toward continuity
• Maturational theories
• Orientation toward discontinuity
• Stage theories (Freud, Piaget)

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The Active Passive Controversy

• For learning to occur do educators need to
• motivate passive learners, or
• encourage active learners to explore
• Bronfenbrenner (1977) views children as both
  active and passive
• Banduras reciprocal determinism
• mutual influences of people and the environment

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How Do We Study Child Development?
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What Is the Scientific Method?

• Step 1 Formulating a Research Question
• Step 2 Developing a Hypothesis
• Step 3 Testing the Hypothesis
• Step 4 Drawing Conclusions about the Hypothesis
• Step 5 Publish Findings

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What Is Naturalistic Observation?

• Field studies
• Observations done in natural (real-life) settings
• Control for interference
• Often used initially to gather descriptive data
  or to explore relationships among variables
• Examples of naturalistic-observation studies
• Motor behavior of Native American children
  strapped to cradleboards
• Language development in diverse cultures
• Socialization patterns in diverse cultures

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What Is Case Study?

• Account of behavior of an individual
• Includes many different types of information
• Child diaries
• Questionnaires
• Standardized tests
• Interviews
• Other sources of records
• Example of case study
• Piagets cognitive-development model based on his
  own children
• Freuds psychosexual theory based on his patients

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What Does It Mean to Correlate Information?

• Mathematical calculation to determine
  relationships between behaviors and/or traits
• Correlation coefficient
• Mathematical number between 1.00 and -1.00
• Positive correlation
• Negative correlation
• Limitation Shows relationships, not cause and
  effect

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Figure 1.7 Examples of Positive and Negative
Correlations
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What Is an Experiment?

• Research method in which one group receives
  treatment and another does not
• Used to determine cause and effect
• Variables
• Independent variable - manipulated by
  experimenter
• Dependent variable measured results
• Participant Groups
• Experimental group receive the treatment
• Control group do not receive the treatment
• Random Assignment
• Ethical and Practical Considerations

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How Do Researchers Study Development Over Time?

• Longitudinal research
• Same children are observed repeatedly over time
• May lose participants over time
• Cross-sectional research
• Children of different ages are observed and
  compared
• Cohort effect
• Cross-sequential research
• Combines longitudinal (time period) and
  cross-sectional (cohorts)
• Breaks time span into convenient segments

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Figure 1.8 Examples of Cross-Sequential Research
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What Ethical Guidelines Are Involved in Research
in Child Development?

• Standards to promote the dignity of the
  individual, foster human welfare, and maintain
  scientific integrity
• Treatment may not do physical or psychological
  harm
• Subjects must participate voluntarily