Child Development Chapter 1

Front 1

What are the domains of development?

Back 1

Physical growth and health, cognitive development, and social and emotional development.

Front 2

What is physical growth and development?

Back 2

Includes motor development and physical health and illness.

Front 3

What is cognitive development?

Back 3

Includes thinking and reasoning skills and language development.

Front 4

What is social and emotional development?

Back 4

The developmental domain that includes changes in emotion, self-concepts, and interpersonal relationships.

Front 5

What are the themes in child development?

Back 5

Nature and nurture, continuity and discontinuity, and universality and diversity.

Front 6

What is nature?

Back 6

The inherited or genetic characteristics of a person.

Front 7

What is nurture?

Back 7

The characteristics of a person's environment that affect development.

Front 8

What is continuity?

Back 8

The idea that changes are gradual and occur little by little over time.

Front 9

What is discontinuity?

Back 9

The idea that changes are sudden and qualitative rather than gradual and quantitative. (They take place in stages.)

Front 10

What is universality?

Back 10

How we are alike in comparison to other cultures.

Front 11

What did preformationists believe?

Back 11

A tiny fully formed human (homunculus) was implanted in the sperm or egg at the moment of conception. The invention of the microscope disproved this theory as it showed prenatal development.

Front 12

What was Phillpe Aries' (1960) view of childhood?

Back 12

Children were sent away to be apprentices to learn useful skills like carpentry and were expected to act and dress like small adults.
As proof, Aries used European paintings from the Middle Ages depicting children as adults.
Some people pointed out that the apprenticeships Aries referred to were not as prevalent as he made them out to be.
Although many children did not go to school and were forced into adulthood much faster than today.

Front 13

What was John Locke's view of childhood?

Back 13

Tabula Rasa
(children start life with their minds as a blank slate).
Emphasized the role of environment in development. Nurture
Early learning and learning through association to shape the mind.
Reward and punishment – Reward through verbal praise and no physical punishment.

Front 14

What was Jean-Jacques Rousseau's view of childhood?

Back 14

Innate goodness
ature
Children grow according to a natural plan which helps them to develop different capacities at different ages.
4 Stages of Human Development (1. Infancy (birth to 2 years), 2. Childhood (2 to 12 years), Late Childhood (12 to 15 years) and Adolescence (beginning at 15 years))
Determined that children are presocial, focused on their wants and needs rather than socializing which occurs during adolescence
Felt that children should not be corrected nor hidden from harmful objects but them should learn how to solve problems on their own.

Front 15

What were Charles Darwin's evolutionary ideas?

Back 15

Natural selection. There are variant forms of creatures and certain forms were better adapted to the environment they lived in than others and conditions of nature “select” those who can best survive.
Survival of the fittest. Through natural selection, only the animals that are best adapted to their environments manage to survive.
“ontogeny (the development of individuals) recapitulates phylogeny” (the development of the species. Disproved.

Front 16

What was G. Stanley Hall's view of childhood?

Back 16

G. Stanley Hall – First person to receive a PHD in the US. Described adolescence as “storm and stress.”

Front 17

What was Arnold Gesell's view of childhood?

Back 17

Arnold Gesell – Student of Hall. Considered nature and nurture to be two major influences on human development. Maturation – Biologically determined natural course of growth that is similar for all members of a species. Always takes place in same way, following its own internal timing and sequence. Rate of maturation can be affected by environmental conditions.

Front 18

What was Alfred Binet's view of childhood?

Back 18

During the early 20th century a French minister wanted to determine which student would do better in a non-traditional classroom setting.
Binet developed a set of age-graded items to measure children's abilities and was used widely in French schools and the concept of intelligence was born.

Front 19

What was Lewis Terman's view of childhood?

Back 19

Terman created an American version of Binet's test. And added new items wanting to learn about children who were highly intelligent and those who were less intelligent and so created the Standford-Binet Test of Intelligence.

Front 20

What was Freud's psychoanalytic theory?

Back 20

Emphasis on unconscious drives and motives.
Early childhood experiences determine who we are today.
Psychosexuality - pleasures through parts of the body, oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital

Front 21

What was Erik Erickson's psychosocial theory?

Back 21

Emphasis on social environment, culture, and contextual issues.
Learn about world through self and others.

Front 22

What was Pavlov's classical conditioning?

Back 22

Children learn through association.
Pavlov's dog.

Front 23

What was John Watson's behaviorism?

Back 23

Focus on behavior, not inner motives. (what you do, not who you are)
Little Albert.

Front 24

What was B.F. Skinner's operant conditiong?

Back 24

Behavior is strengthened through reinforcement.

Front 25

What was Albert Bandura's observational learning?

Back 25

Children imitate what they see.
They observe behavior and then model it.
Social cognitive theory - self efficacy (a feeling of effectiveness, we can succeed through our own efforts)

Front 26

What was Piaget's cognitive perspective?

Back 26

Children construct their own understandings of the world through different stages of development.

Front 27

What was Juan Pascual-Leone's information processing theory?

Back 27

Children have a working memory that grows over time.

Front 28

What was Robbie Case's information processing theory?

Back 28

Cognitive performance is limited not by capacity, but by cognitive processing efficacy. (Cognitive processing efficiency)
Mental tasks require more effort from younger children than older ones. (Like counting to ten.)

Front 29

What was Vygostsky's socicultural theory?

Back 29

Emphasizes the interaction of persons with the social and cultural aspects of their environments. (Children learn through their environments)
Zone of proximal development - Activities and skills that a child can perform with help from a more experienced person, but cannot master independently; this is the range of activities within which learning normally occurs.

Front 30

What is Urie Brofenbrenner's ecological system's theory?

Back 30

Emphasis on the imapct of various aspects of the environment on children.
Home -> preschool -> kindergarten in public school.
Microsystem - Immediate settings in which children's daily interactions take place such as home or school.
Mesosystem - Interconnections amongst microsystems.
Exosystem - Part of the environment not occupied by children but nevertheless influential in their experiences. ex. parent's workplace and social networks.
Macrosystem - Values, customs, and conditions of the larger environment that may affect the child's daily interactions with parents and peers.
Chronosystem - Temporal changes that may affect the environments of the child's development.
Bioecological Processes - The processes of development are thought to be both biological and ecological: the term bioecological emphasizes how inextricably connected they are.

Front 31

What is ethology?

Back 31

A branch of biology that involves observationl study of animals in their natural habitats.

Front 32

What did Konrad Lorenz contribute to ethology?

Back 32

Imprinting - A process through which the young of certain species of birds follow the first moving object they see after hatching, usually the mother.
Determined there were critical periods and sensitive periods in development.
Critical periods - Periods of time during which specific stimulation must occur in order for certain effects to be observed; for instance, in imprinting, young birds much see a moving object within a specific period of time for imprinting to occur.
Sensitive periods - Developmental periods when a particular type of learning proceeds most rapidly.

Front 33

What did John Bowlby contribute to ethology?

Back 33

Attachment theory. Saw that a baby's crying and smiling as signals that encourage the mother to stay near them. A baby in close proximity to its mother is more likely to be well fed and kept safe from harm.

Front 34

What is the dynamic systems theory?

Back 34

A theoretical perspective on human development that emphasizes the changing, self-organizing nature of development over time. There is no single system or path of development.

Front 35

What is a hypothesis?

Back 35

A proposal intended to explain observations or results of a scientific study.

Front 36

What are self-reports?

Back 36

Research methods that involve asking questions of participants to learn their thoughts, attitude,s or feelings or to hear their reports about their own behavior or that of others.
Pro: First-hand responses.
Con: Could be lying.

Front 37

What are structured interviews?

Back 37

A research method that involves asking the same question in the same way to each person in the study.
Pro: Can reveal inner experiences, thoughts and feelings.
Con: Inaccurate memory, biased reports, can miss important but unanticipated information.

Front 38

What are clinical interviews?

Back 38

A research method in which the investigator uses a flexible, conversational style of questioning participants ; allows for follow-up of unexpected responses.
Pro: Can reveal inner experiences thoughts and feelings. Flexible; unanticipated answers.
Con: Inaccurate or biased answers. Lack of standardization may be difficult to summarize results.

Front 39

What are naturalistic observations?

Back 39

A research technique that involves watching infants, children, or adolescents in environments that they normally frequent, such as homes, schools, or playgrounds.
Pro: Normal behavior in everyday environments. Good for social interaction.
Con: Cannot observe private thoughts or feelings. You do not control the environment.

Front 40

What are structured observations?

Back 40

A research technique that exposes all participants in a study to the same situation in order to observe their responses to it; especially valuable for studying behavior that would be rare in natural environments.
Pro: Allows observation of different children's behavior in similar situations or same child in different situations.
Con: Studies may be unique, not a good representation of everyday life. Can't observe private thoughts and feelings.

Front 41

What is a case study?

Back 41

A research method that involves intensive study of a single individual, or of a small number of individuals.
Pro: Rich description of development of one person. Good for rare talent or disability.
Con: Difficult to know if findings apply to others. May be biased by researcher's point of view or atypical research subjects.

Front 42

What are physiological methods?

Back 42

Assessment of heart rate, blood pressure, and other involuntary activities to study physiological bases of behavior. Physical stuff. Heart rate and blood pressure for instance.
Pro: Allow observation of physical activities that would not otherwise be visible to others and can illuminate biological bases of behavior.
Con:

Front 43

What are neuroscience methods?

Back 43

Research techniques such as EEGs (brain waves and development) and fMRIs (brain activity) that assess brain development and nervous system functioning.
Pro: Can reveal brain function.
Con: Results must be seen in context of other info about behavior in order to be useful. Can be unpleasant or intrusive for participants.

Front 44

What is correlational design?

Back 44

A research design in which changes in one or more variables as they may or may not be associated with changes in another variable are studied; for example, a study of associations between height and weight over different ages.

Front 45

What is experimental design?

Back 45

Research design in which one or more independent variables are manipulated in order to observe the impact on one or more dependent variables; especially useful for identifying casual influences.

Front 46

What is an independent variable?

Back 46

In an experimental design, the variable that is altered in order to observe the effects of this alteration on the dependent variable(s).

Front 47

What is a dependent variable?

Back 47

In an experimental design, the measured variable that may change as a result of variations in the independent variable(s).

Front 48

What is a random assignment?

Back 48

In experimental research, a procedure that ensures that every participant has an equal change of being assigned to every condition.

Front 49

What is longitudinal design?

Back 49

Research design that involves study of the same people on multiple occasions over time.

Front 50

What are cohort effects?

Back 50

Associated with longitudinal design, they are effects associated with a particular group of people. Ex. Those born in a specific year.

Front 51

What is cross-sectional design?

Back 51

Research design that involves comparisons between groups of participants who only differ in age.

Front 52

What is cross-sequential design?

Back 52

Research design that begins with two or more groups of different ages and follows all of them over a specified period of time; a combination of longitudinal and cross-sectional research and designs.

Front 53

What are ethics in research?

Back 53

Safety
Informed Consent
“Do no harm” rule
Privacy

Front 54

What is critical thinking?

Back 54

Questioning why and how things are the way they are and questioning if there is a different way to go about things.