Chapter 1 outline

Chapter 1
An Intro to Human Development

I Human development: the scientific study of age-related changes in behavior, thinking, emotion and personality.

II Philosophical Roots
A. original sin
B. innate goodness: good behavior results from growing up in an environment that doesn’t interfere with the individual’s attempts to do so.
C. the blank slate: Locke’s theory. External environmental factors act on a person to form their development.

III Early Scientific theories
A. Darwin kept baby biographies to try and prove evolution
B. G. Stanley Hall did the first scientific study of child development.
1. norms: average ages at which developmental milestones are reached
C. Gesell’s research suggested the existence of a genetically programmed sequential pattern of change.
1. maturation: the gradual unfolding of a genetically programmed sequential pattern of change.

IV The Lifespan Perspective
A. 49 at beginning of 20th century, 76 at end.
B. important changes occur during every period of development and that these changes must be interpreted in terms of the culture and context in which they occur.
1. plasticity: the capacity for positive change

V The Domains of Development
A. physical domain: includes changes in the size, shape, and characteristics of the body.
B. cognitive domain: changes in thinking, memory, problem solving, and other intellectual skills
C. social domain: includes changes in variables that are associated with the relationship of an individual to others.










Key Issues in the Study of Human Development

I Nature vs Nurture: the debate about the relative contributions of biological processes and experiential factors to development.
A. inborn biases: children are born with tendencies to respond in certain ways. A baby is not a blank slate at birth.
B. Internal models of experience:
1. the effect of some experience depends not on any objective properties of the experience but rather on the individual’s interpretation of it.
2. interpretations of experience are not random or governed by temporary moods but rather are organized into models, which can be thought of as organized sets of assumptions or expectations about oneself or others.
C. The Ecological Approach: looking beyond a child’s immediate family for explanations of development. We must understand the context or ecology in which the child is growing.

II Continuity vs Discontinuity
A. The question of whether age-related change is primarily a matter of amount of degree (continuity) or more commonly involves changes in type or kind (discontinuity).

III Universal Changes
A. Social clock: a set of age norms defining a sequence of life experiences that is considered normal in a given culture and that all individuals in that culture are expected to follow.
B. ageism: a prejudicial view of older adults that characterizes them in negative ways.

IV Group-Specific Changes: are shared by all individual who grow up together in a particular group.
A. Cultural context: some system of meanings and customs, including values, attitudes, goals, laws, beliefs, moral guidelines, etc. and transmitted from one generation of that group to the next.
B. Historical Context
1. cohort: a group of individuals who are born within some fairly narrow span of years and thus share the same historical experiences at the same times in their lives.
V Individual differences: changes resulting from unique, unshared events.
A. critical period: a specific period in development when an organism is especially sensitive to the presence (or absence) of some particular kind of experience.
B. sensitive period: a span of months or years during which a child may be particularly responsive to specific forms of experience or particularly influenced by their absence.
C. atypical development: deviates from the typical developmental pathway in a direction that is harmful to the individual.

Research Designs and Methods

I Relating goals to methods

II Studying age-related changes
A. cross-sectional designs: in which groups of people of different ages are compared
B. longitudinal design: in which people in a single group are studied at different times in their lives
C. sequential design: a research design that combines cross-sectional and longitudinal examinations of development.

III Identifying Relationships Between Variables
A. case studies and naturalistic observation
1. case study: an in depth examination of a single individual
2. naturalistic observation: the process of studying people in their normal environments
B. correlation: a relationship between 2 variables that can be expressed as a number ranging from -1.00 to + 1.00. Zero means no relationship between the 2 variables. Closer to 1.00, stronger relationship.
C. experiment: a study that tests a casual hypothesis
1. experimental group: the group that receives the treatment the experimenter things will produce a particular effect.
2. control group: receives either neutral or no special treatment
3. independent variable: the presumed causal element in an experiment (causes the change)
4. dependent variable: the characteristic or behavior that is expected to be affected by the independent variable

IV Cross-cultural research
A. ethnography: a detailed description of a single culture or context

V Research Ethics: the guidelines researchers follow to protect the rights of animals used in research and humans who participate in studies.
A. protection from harm
B. Informed consent
C. confidentiality
D. knowledge of results
E. deception: if used have a right to know