1. Intro to Developmental Psychology

• What is Developmental Psychology?

  Developmental Psychology seeks to identify and describe changes in the way we think and behave, and to uncover the developmental processes that drive these changes.
• What do we study in developmental psychology?

  Cognitive Development

  • e.g. memory, problem-solving, language acquisition

  Social and Emotional Development

  • e.g. attachment, self-concept, emotional regulation, social cognition

  Physical Development

  • e.g. growth patterns, motor skills, brain development

  Developmental Psychopathology

  • Neurodevelopmental conditions, e.g. autism
  • Behavioural (“externalising”) problems
  • Emotional (“internalising”) problems
• Why study development?


  • Understanding the origins of and early influences on adult cognition and behaviour
  • Understanding issues and struggles in development, including clinical conditions
  • → environmental vs. biological influences
  • → interventions and prevention
  • Informing social policy
• Developmental periods


  Developmental psychology is not just child development

  
• Developmental periods: Fetal Development

  • What are the processes and changes?
  • What might influence these processes?
  • → Prenatal experiences (e.g., sounds)
  • → Prenatal exposure (e.g., substances

  
• Infant development


  Neonatal period

  • Novel sensory input
  • Rapid learning

  Infancy:

  • Little to no language skills
  • What do infants know in the absence of language?
  • How can we “test” these things?

  
• Developmental periods: Childhood Development

  Preschool (18 months – 4 years):

  • Rapidly developing language, cognitive, social skills

  Early childhood (5-7 years):

  • Beginning to understand complex ideas
  • More experience with non-family members

  Middle/late childhood (8-12 years)

  • Potentially early effects of puberty

  
• Developmental periods: Adolescence 


  • High school and higher education
  • Effects of puberty
  • Social and sexual development
  • Development of complex reasoning and impulse control
  • Beginning to create their own world

  
• Developmental periods: Adulthood


  Young adulthood

  • Gaining detailed knowledge or skills
  • Establishing role in life (work, relationships)

  Middle adulthood

  • Family transitions
  • Careers peak
  • Cross-cultural differences

  Late adulthood

  • Retirement
  • Declining physical and cognitive skills

  
• Typical vs Atypical development

  A) Typical

  B) Atypical

  C) Age started walking

  D) no. of infants

  
• Perspectives on development


  • Individual differences: Why do some children react differently to the same event, variable, or context?
  • Cultural perspective: What cultural factors impact development in different ways?
  • Biological perspective: What biological, neurological, and/or genetic factors influence development?
  • Lifespan perspective: How does development unfold from birth to old age?
  • Ecological perspective: How does development fit into the environmental context?
• Big issues in developmental psychology

  • Nature vs. nurture
  • Continuity vs. discontinuity
  • Critical vs. sensitive periods
  • Domain general vs. domain specific mechanisms
• Nature vs Nurture

  To what extent do genes (nature) vs. environment (nurture) influence development?

  
  

  Nativism (Nature):

  • Certain abilities or traits are hardwired from birth
  • Biological inheritance / genetic predisposition are central to who we are

  Empiricism (Nurture):

  • Development is a result of environmental influences and learning experiences
  • Learning, socialisation, and environmental interactions are central to who we are

  Gene-environment interactions
• Continuity vs Discontinuity


  Continuous:

  • Smooth and gradual
  • New abilities build on previous ones

  Discontinuous:

  • Abrupt changes in general abilities
  • Stage theories

  
• Sensitive vs Critical periods

  Sensitive periods:

  • Time window during which certain experiences are optimal for typical development
  • e.g. second language acquisition: children are particularly adept at learning new languages between birth and age 7

  Critical periods:

  • Time window during which specific environmental experiences are essential for typical development
  • e.g. vision: early visual experiences are crucial for normal visual development
• Domain specific vs. domain general mechanisms

  Domain specific:

  • Processes develop independently in specific areas (domains)
  • e.g. Nativist view on language acquisition (Noam Chomsky):
  • → Humans have innate, domain-specific mechanism for language learning – distinct from other cognitive abilities

  Domain general:

  • General mechanisms drive development across multiple areas
  • e.g. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development:
  • → Broad cognitive shifts underlie development as children move through specific developmental stages
• Key theories in developmental psychology

  • Freud’s psychodynamic theory
  • Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory
  • Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
  • Behaviourism (Skinner) and Social Learning (Bandura)
  • Ethological and evolutionary theories
  • The systems/ecological perspective
• Freud’s psychodynamic theory of development

  • Childhood experiences and unconscious drives influence personality and behaviour throughout life
  • Five psychosexual stages
  • Unresolved conflict in any stage can result in fixation → impact on personality and behaviour

  
• Piaget’s cognitive development theory

  • Constructivist → Children construct knowledge for themselves in response to experience.
  • Children learn on their own, without adult instruction, and are intrinsically motivated (don’t need a reward) to do so.
  • Development progresses continuously (continuities) and in discrete stages (discontinuities)
• Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory


  Development takes place through children’s social interactions with others

  • Focus on social and cultural influences

  Children as social beings – both learners and teachers

  • Focus on interactions and experiences

  Development as continuous; no discrete stages.
• Behaviourism


  Explaining development through the principles of learning

  
• Social learning theories (Bandura)

  People learn by observing others’ behaviours and their consequences

  Albert Bandura:

  • Learning occurs through observation / imitation of others
  • Mediated by cognitive processes (attention, retention, reproduction, motivation)

  Takes into account cognitive (e.g. knowledge), environmental (e.g. social norms), and behavioural (e.g. skills) factors
• Ethological and evolutionary theories

  Development as adaptation to a particular context

  Comparison across species

  • What is common and similar across species?
  • What are the adaptive advantages of the behaviour? (e.g. attachment/bonding)
• The systems/ecological perspective

  
• The cognitive neuroscience perspective

  Investigating the neural correlates of cognition / emotion / mental health throughout development

  
• Research designs in developmental psychology

  • Observational (often correlational) vs. experimental designs
  • Longitudinal vs. cross-sectional designs
• Observational designs in developmental psychology

  Observing or assessing behaviour, characteristics, or outcomes without experimental manipulation, e.g.:

  • Naturalistic observation
  • Data collection using questionnaires / interviews etc.

  Often (not always!) correlational

  • Is one variable associated (correlated) with another variable?
  • If so, what is the direction and strength of this relationship?
• Observational designs in developmental psychology

  
• Experimental designs in developmental psychology

  Allows investigators to determine cause and effect by controlling variables and treatments

  • Between subjects:
  • Within subjects:

  Ensuring ecological validity is often difficult
• Between subjects design


  • Experimental group → exposed to the treatment or independent variable
  • Control group → not exposed to the treatment or independent variable
  • Random assignment: individuals are randomly assigned to experimental or control group
• Within subjects design


  • Experimental condition(s) → exposed to the treatment(s) or independent variable(s)
  • Control condition → not exposed to the treatment(s) or independent variable(s)
  • Counterbalancing: individuals are randomly assigned to experience conditions in different orders
• Experimental designs in developmental psychology

  
• Longitudinal designs in developmental psychology

  Study the same participants over time

  Advantages:

  • Can explore causation, not just correlation
  • Impact over time
  • Minimise problems related to comparing groups at different ages

  Difficulties:

  • Requires time, money, resources
  • Participant drop-out
  • Influenced by major events (e.g. COVID pandemic)
• Longitudinal designs in developmental psychology

  
• Cross-sectional designs in developmental psychology

  Comparing different groups (e.g. different age groups), but at the same time

  Advantages:

  • Require less time and money
  • Less risk of participant drop-out
  • Less influence of major events

  Difficulties:

  • Harder to conclude about causation / impact over time
  • Need to make groups as comparable as possible on non-study related variables
• Cross-sectional designs in developmental psychology

  
• Reports: Self, family, teachers, and peers

  Information is provided by the participant, or other people around them

  Self-reports:

  • Good for gaining information about participants’ own experience or feelings.
  • BUT: Relies on participant having insight and an understanding of questions. 

  Family, teacher and peer reports:

  • Good for gaining information about participant over a variety of contexts and time points.
  • BUT: Prone to biases
• Reports: Self, family, teachers, and peers

  
• Interviews


  Structured and semi-structured interviews:

  • Delivered to participant, family member, teacher or peer.
  • Can have branching questions that adapt according to responses
• Observations


  Information is gathered based upon observations of behaviour of interest in their natural context or in the laboratory:

  • Observing unstructured and natural interactions and/or behaviours
  • Observing participants interactions and/or behaviour during a structured task/activity

  Issues with this method:

  • Presence of an observer may influence the outcome
  • Time-consuming to conduct and analyse