Development

• • Atypical development in children can be characterized by deviations from the typical pattern of development.
• Development refers to changes over time in a person’s body, thought, and behavior due to biological and environmental influences.
• Developmental psychologists focus on common features of human development.
• Developmental psychologists usually divide the lifespan into developmental periods or stages that most people share.
• The domains of human development include Physical, Cognitive, Personality, and Sociocultural.
• Infancy & Toddlerhood in developmental psychology refers to the period from birth to 2,5 years.
• Early Childhood in developmental psychology refers to the period from 2,5 to 6 years.
• Middle Childhood in developmental psychology refers to the period from 6 to 11 years.
• Adolescence in developmental psychology refers to the period from 11 years to early adulthood.
• The evaluation of development includes understanding the nature versus nurture debate and understanding typical versus atypical development in children.
• Atypical development appears when a child either lags behind or jumps ahead of typical peer progress, in any regard -- physical, cognitive, social or in adaptive life skills.
• Typical milestones should be known to identify atypical development - intervention programs / focused therapies.
• Cognition is a broad and diverse range of intellectual activities that involve obtaining, retaining, using, and communicating information.
• Educational implications of studying development guide educators in creating ideal educational conditions, designing age-appropriate curricula incorporating play-based learning, suggesting classroom management strategies, promoting social-emotional learning, and providing teacher training based on developmental principles.
• By understanding the factors that influence development, we can implement strategies to optimize well-being and mitigate risks.
• Studying development is also instrumental in shaping legal regulations and policies that safeguard individuals at various life stages.
• Cultural norms, beliefs, and practices influence how children perceive the world and acquire knowledge.
• Cultures play a role in selecting and encouraging some cognitive abilities but not others.
• Studying human development is instrumental in creating ideal conditions for development and preventing developmental disorders.
• Perception refers to the cognitive processes used to interpret sensory information.
• Quasi - experimental method: in quasi - experimental studies the independent variable is not (or cannot be) manipulated as such, and so assignment to experimental groups cannot be random.
• Regardless of method, it is important to replicate, or repeat the studies to insure consistency of results.
• Each method has strengths and weaknesses.
• All methods must observe strict ethical guidelines and are the subject to scrutiny by Institutional Review Boards.
• Random assignment: the process of assigning participants to study conditions on a strictly unsystematic basis.
• Within - subjects design: a research design in which the same participants are exposed to different levels of the independent variable.
• Sometimes methods are combined, as in a quasi - experiment.
• Examples of independent variables that cannot be manipulated by an experimenter : age - groups, gender, stressful life event.
• Between - subjects design: a research study involving a systematic manipulation of an independent variable with different participants being exposed to different levels of that variable.
• Guiding ethical principles are informed consent, confidentiality, and doing no harm to the subject.
• Observation in research can be systematic or naturalistic.
• Longitudinal design in research involves studying the same participants at various points in time to see how they change as they age.
• Sequential cohort design in research involves several overlapping cohorts of different ages being studied longitudinally.
• Questionnaire is a research technique that asks respondents to answer questions about past or present behavior, attitudes, preferences, opinions, feelings, and so forth.
• Children come to understand other points of view and how other people may have different thoughts, beliefs, intentions, and emotions, a process known as Theory of Mind (ToM).
• The experimental method in research involves manipulation, experimental control, independent variable, dependent variable, experimental group, control group, and condition.
• Research methods for studying Cognitive Development include longitudinal design, cross-sectional design, and sequential cohort design.
• Confounding in research refers to the influence of factors other than the independent variable on the dependent variable.
• Survey is a questionnaire administered to a large group.
• Interview is a questionnaire that is administered verbally, usually in a one on one setting.