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• Development is the pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through the life span
• It involves growth, but also includes decline
• Development is a lifelong process
• To better care for children, it is important to examine children's development, areas in which children's lives need improvement, and the roles of resilience and social policy in development
• Developmental psychologists study a wide range of topics including health, well-being, parenting, education, and sociocultural contexts and diversity
• Resilience is exemplified by children who develop confidence in their abilities despite serious obstacles
• Characteristics of Resilient Children:

  • Individual: temperament, learning skills, self-confidence, social skills
  • Family: emotional attachment, communication, healthy parents, authoritative parenting
  • Extrafamilial context: sense of belonging, bonds to caring adults, social supports, safe neighborhoods
• Resilience is connected to the resilience of the adults in a child's life
• Differential susceptibility: Some children are more vulnerable to adverse effects of negative development experiences than others
• Exposure to Stressors:

  • Poor children are more likely to face stressors compared to middle-income children
• Biological processes involve changes in physical nature, cognitive processes involve changes in thought and intelligence, and socioemotional processes involve changes in relationships and emotions
• Periods of Development:

  • Prenatal period
  • Infancy
  • Early childhood
  • Middle and late childhood
  • Adolescence
• Nature-nurture issue: debate on whether development is influenced by nature or nurture

  • Continuity-discontinuity issue: debate on whether development involves gradual change or distinct stages
  • Early-later experience issue: debate on the impact of early vs later experiences on development
  • Stability-change issue: debate on whether traits remain constant or change throughout life
• Scientific research is objective, systematic, and testable, reducing bias

  • The scientific method involves conceptualizing a process, collecting data, analyzing data, and drawing conclusions
• Psychoanalytic Theories:

  • Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory: behavior is determined by resolving inner conflicts
  • Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Stages: individuals confront unique developmental tasks at each stage
• Erikson's Psychosocial Stages:

  • Trust vs. Mistrust: Infants who experience positive care develop trust, while neglect or abuse can lead to mistrust
  • Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt: Toddlers should be encouraged to explore their environment to develop autonomy; being too restrictive can lead to shame and doubt
  • Initiative vs. Guilt: Young children benefit from play for socioemotional and cognitive development; criticism should be minimal to avoid guilt and anxiety
  • Industry vs. Inferiority: Elementary school children should be challenged but not overwhelmed to foster mastery and curiosity
• • Identity vs. Role Confusion: Adolescents should be encouraged to think independently and explore their identity through self-expression and discussions on political and ideological issues
• Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory:

  • Children actively construct their understanding of the world in four stages of cognitive development
  • Preoperational stage: Children represent the world with words, images, and drawings but lack the ability to perform internalized mental actions called operations
  • Concrete operational stage: Children can perform logical reasoning on concrete examples but struggle with abstract thinking like algebraic equations
• Vygotsky's Sociocultural Cognitive Theory:

  • Emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development
  • Children's social interaction with more-skilled individuals is crucial for cognitive development
  • Knowledge is collaborative and influenced by social and cultural environments
• Information-Processing Theory:

  • Individuals manipulate and monitor information to acquire increasingly complex knowledge and skills
  • Focuses on memory and thinking processes without describing development in stages
• Behavioural and Social Cognitive Theories:

  • Behaviourism: Learning and conditioning methods emphasize observable behaviour learned through experience with the environment
  • Pavlov's classical conditioning and Skinner's operant conditioning are prominent behavioural approaches
  • Bandura's social cognitive theory emphasizes behaviour, environment, and cognition in development, including observational learning and self-efficacy
• Ethological Theory:

  • Behaviour is influenced by biology, tied to evolution, and characterized by critical periods
  • Imprinting is rapid learning within a critical period involving attachment to the first moving object seen
  • Attachment to a caregiver during the first year of life has long-term consequences
• Ecological Theory (Bronfenbrenner):

  • Development reflects the influence of five environmental systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem
  • Environmental factors impact development bidirectionally, with interactions between different systems influencing individuals
• Research Methods and Designs:

  • Systematic observation in laboratory and naturalistic settings, surveys, interviews, standardized tests, and case studies are used for data collection
  • Physiological measures like blood samples and neuroimaging are employed based on research goals
  • Descriptive research observes and records behaviour, while correlational research describes relationships between variables without proving causation
• Correlation:

  • Foot size and vocabulary are positively correlated
  • Larger feet do not cause larger vocabularies, a third variable (age) causes both foot size and vocabulary to increase
• Experiment:

  • Carefully regulated procedure where factors influencing behavior are manipulated while keeping other factors constant
  • Independent variable: manipulated factor (potential cause)
  • Dependent variable: factor that can change in response to changes in the independent variable (resulting effect)
  • Experimental group: group whose experience is manipulated
  • Control group: comparison group treated the same except for the manipulated factor
  • Random assignment: each participant has an equal likelihood of being assigned to any group within an experiment
• Research Designs:

  • Cross-sectional approach: individuals of different ages compared at the same point in time
  • Longitudinal approach: same individuals studied over time, usually several years or more
  • Sequential approach combines aspects of both cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches
  • Cohort effects: effects due to a person’s time of birth, era, or generation rather than actual age
• Conducting Ethical Research:

  • Informed consent: participants must know the involvement and risks, with the right to withdraw
  • Confidentiality: data must be kept confidential and anonymous when possible
  • Debriefing: participants informed of the study's purpose and methods after
  • Deception: any deception must not harm participants and they must be debriefed
• Natural Selection:

  • Evolutionary process where best-adapted individuals of a species survive and reproduce
  • Adaptive behavior promotes survival in the natural habitat
• Evolutionary Psychology:

  • Emphasizes adaptation, reproduction, and "survival of the fittest" in shaping behavior
  • Evolution influences decision-making, aggression, fears, etc.
• Genetic Foundations:

  • Genes are short segments of DNA, located on chromosomes
  • Chromosomes in the nucleus of each human cell contain DNA
  • Collaborative gene: genes' expression affected by genes' environment collaboration
• Genetic Principles:

  • Dominant-recessive genes principle: one gene of a pair may be dominant, overriding the recessive gene
  • Most characteristics are polygenically determined by the interaction of many genes
  • Gene-gene interaction studies focus on the interdependence of multiple genes
• Chromosomal Abnormalities:

  • Down syndrome: extra copy of chromosome 21
  • Fragile X syndrome: mutated X gene in males
  • Treatments for abnormalities may improve adaptive behavior and quality of life
• Heredity and Environment Interaction:

  • Behaviour genetics studies the influence of heredity and environment on individual differences
  • Twin and adoption studies are used to understand the role of genetics and environment in traits
• Heredity-Environment Correlations:

  • Passive genotype-environment correlations: parents provide rearing environment that shares genes
  • Evocative genotype-environment correlations: genetics inherited actively seek out different environments
  • Active (niche-picking) genotype-environment correlations: child actively seek out environments based on capabilities
• Shared and Nonshared Environmental Experiences:

  • Shared environmental experiences: siblings' common environmental experiences
  • Nonshared environmental experiences: a child's unique experiences within and outside the family
• Epigenetic View:

  • Development results from ongoing interchange between heredity and environment
  • Gene × environment interaction: specific variation in DNA and environment interaction
• Prenatal Development:

  • Conception: sperm unites with an egg in fertilization
  • Typical prenatal development divided into germinal, embryonic, and fetal periods
• Germinal Period:

  • Takes place in the first 2 weeks post-conception
  • Includes creation of zygote, cell division, and implantation
• Embryonic Period:

  • Occurs from 2 to 8 weeks post-conception
  • Intensified cell differentiation, support systems for cells