Psyc 211 SU 1-5

• Developmental stages

  • Prenatal stage (germinal, embryonic, fetal)
  • Neonatal stage (first 2-4 weeks, infancy up to 2 years)
  • Early childhood (age 2-6)
  • Middle childhood (age 6-12)
  • Adolescence (puberty to adulthood)
• Domains of development

  • Physical development
  • Cognitive development
  • Personality development
  • Social development
• Physical development

  Entails changes in the child's body; includes the development of the brain and the effect of factors such as heredity, hormones and nutrition. An important aspect is motor development.
• Cognitive development

  Cognition refers to how we acquire information about the world by means of our senses, how we process and interpret information, and how we store, retrieve and use this knowledge to direct our behaviour; also refers to how children come to know and understand the world.
• Personality development

  Personality is the totality of a person's psychological, social, moral and physical characteristics. The self can be regarded as the core of a person's personality (his most important characteristics); the self-concept refers to a person's evaluation of himself; Identity is the way a person identifies himself in relation to others social groups and individuals.
• Social development

  Involves the development of the individual's interaction and relationships with other people, it also includes the influence of society and significant others on the individual, the attachment between child and care giver, the expansion of the person's interpersonal relationships, the modelling of behaviour and the development of relationships between sexes.
• Socialisation is an aspect of social development where the individual acquires socially acceptable behaviour through social interaction.
• Moral development involves the individual's views concerning what is right and wrong as well as developments in the way in which moral judgements are made.
• Nature

  Biological determinants such as genetic, neurological and hormonal factors.
• Nurture

  Environmental factors such as the social (parenting styles) and the physical environment (poverty).
• Continuity

  Development is a gradual and smooth process.
• Discontinuity

  Development occurs in distinct steps or stages, such as the relatively sudden hormonal changes that lead to sexual maturation during adolescence.
• Passive involvement

  Children have no part in their development and are at the mercy of their environment.
• Active involvement

  Children can play an active role in their own development.
• Universality

  All children in the world follow universal (the same) developmental pathways.
• Cultural context

  There are clear differences in developmental pathways along cultural lines.
• Culture

  The beliefs, norms, customs and general way of life of a specific group of people, which are passed on from generation to generation.
• Context

  The setting or specific environment in which development and behaviour occur.
• Theory

  An organised set of ideas that is designed to explain and make predictions about development.
• Functions of a theory

  • Summarise and explain facts
  • Aims to predict future behaviour
  • Stimulates new research
• Biological perspective

  Behaviour is determined by biological factors and emphasises the role of heredity, the nervous system and the endocrine system in behaviour.
• Maturational theory

  Child development reflects a specific and prearranged scheme or plan within the body; development is simply a natural unfolding of a biological plan. Behaviours emerge spontaneously according to a predetermined developmental timetable, without the input or influence from the environment.
• Ethological theory

  Views development from an evolutionary perspective and contends that many behaviours tend to be adaptive. People inherit adaptive behaviours and some kinds of learning occur only at certain critical periods.
• Evolutionary theory

  Human behaviour results from successful adaption to the environment, and our social behaviour is a product of evolution. Environment refers to the change in the inherited characteristics over successive generations.
• Sub-disciplines of the biological perspective

  • Neuropsychology
  • Behavioural genetics
  • Psycho-endocrinology
• Psychodynamic perspective

  Explores the influence of unconscious psychological motives, such as drives or urges on behaviour.
• Psychosexual theory

  Development is largely determined by how well people resolve the unconscious conflicts. Personality includes the id (primitive instincts and drives), the ego (practical, rational component), and the superego (moral agent).
• Psychosocial theory

  Development consists of a sequence of stages each defined by a unique crisis or challenge. Earlier stages provide the foundation for the later stages.

  
• Learning theory perspective

  Behaviour is primarily learned from one's environment.
• Classical conditioning

  The process of learning through which an initially neutral stimulus comes to elicit a particular response after repeatedly being paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
• Operant conditioning

  Children learn by means of the response from the environment, where behaviour that is rewarded is more likely to be repeated.
• Social cognitive theory

  Children learn by simply watching those around them, through observational learning. Children's decisions to imitate others are influenced by their own expectations, personal standards, and the power and dynamism of the model.
• Cognitive developmental perspective

  Focuses on how children think and how their thinking changes over time.
• Piaget's theory of cognitive development

  Children naturally try to make sense of their world by using schemes (mental categories of related events, objects and knowledge). Cognitive development involves organisation, adaptation (assimilation and accommodation), and equilibration.
• Information processing theory

  Explains how incoming information is processed in order for the person to make sense out of it, drawing on the functioning of computers. Includes mental hardware (cognitive structures) and mental software (cognitive processes).
• Contextual perspective

  Culture provides the context in which a child develops, and every aspect of a child's development should be considered against this backdrop.
• Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory

  Adults convey to children the beliefs, customs and skills of their culture. Learning is guided by an adult or older child who models and structures the learning experience, within the zone of proximal development.
• Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory

  The developing child is embedded in multiple interconnected systems, from the immediate family to the broader cultural context.
• Capacity and information

  Often stored in associations
• Culture

  The knowledge, attitudes and behaviour associated with a group of people, and a culture provides the context in which a child develops