2. Definitions
DEVELOPMENT refers to continuous change in an organism
from conception till death. It includes both growth and
decline.
LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT is the field of study that
examines patterns of growth, change, and stability in various
aspects of development that occur throughout the entire
lifespan.
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3. Characteristics/Principles Of
Lifespan Perspective
1. LIFELONG – includes changes from conception until death
2. MULTIDIMENSIONAL – involves changes in physical,
cognitive and socioemotional dimensions.
Physical development refers to body maturation and growth
including body size, proportion, appearance, health and
perceptual abilities.
Cognitive development refers to the maturation of thought
processes and intellectual abilities.
Socioemotional development includes changes in personality,
emotions, social skills and interpersonal relationships with family
and friends.
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4. 3. MULTIDIRECTIONAL – consists of both gains and losses,
growth and decline, throughout the lifespan.
Example is ability to learn second and third languages
decreases as we grow older.
4. PLASTIC – involves capacity for change and growth
during different stages of life in terms of cognition, physiology
and social and emotional functioning.
Plasticity tends to decline with age but does not disappear
entirely.
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5. 5. MULTIDISCIPLINARY – lifespan perspective integrates
information from psychology, sociology, anthropology,
neurology and medicine to help us to understand
development
6. CONTEXTUAL – Context refers to where and when a
person develops. It includes aspects of physical and social
environment such as family, neighborhood, country, culture
and historical time period.
Also includes intangible factors such as values, customs, and
ideals.
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6. Periods/Stages of Development
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Developmental period refers to a timeframe in a
person’s life that is characterized by certain
features
8. Basic Approaches towards Study
of Child Development
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9. 1. Nature vs. Nurture
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10. 2. Continuity vs. Discontinuity
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11. Continuity Proponents Stage Proponents
Development is continuous
with new abilities, skills and
knowledge being gradually
added at a relatively uniform
pace.
Development occurs at
different rates, alternating
between periods of little
change and periods of abrupt,
rapid change.
e.g Piaget, Erickson, kohlberg
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12. 3. One Course of Development or
Many?
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13. 4. Stability vs. Change
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Involves degree to which early traits and characteristics
persist throughout life;
The question of whether development is best
characterized by stability (for example, does a
behaviour or trait such as shyness stay stable in its
expression over time?) or change (could a person's
degree of shyness fluctuate across the life span?).
14. Research Methods for Studying
Child Development
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15. The Scientific Method
The process of posing and answering questions
using careful, controlled techniques that include
systematic, orderly observation and the
collection of data.
Involves the formulation of theories, broad
explanations, and predictions about
phenomena.
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16. Methods of Data Collection
Data
Collection
Self-Report
Measures
Open-ended
Interviews
Structured
Interviews
Questionnaires
Observational
Measures
Naturalistic
observation
Structured
Observation
Physiological
Measures
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18. Research Designs
1. Correlational Research
Seeks to identify whether an association or
relationship between two factors exists.
The strength and direction of a relationship between
two factors is represented by a mathematical score,
called a correlational coefficient, that ranges from +1.0
(positive) to - 1.0 (negative).
Cannot establish Causation
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21. Research Settings
1. Field Study: Capture behavior in real-life settings
Participants may behave more naturally
May be used in correlational studies and experiments
Often difficult to exert control over situation and
environment
2. Laboratory Study: Hold events constant
Enables researchers to learn more clearly how treatment
affect participants
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23. Ethics and Research
Researchers must protect participants from
physical and psychological harm.
Researchers must obtain informed consent from
participants before their involvement in a study.
The use of deception in research must be justified
and cause no harm.
Participants’ privacy must be maintained.
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25. What is a Theory?
A theory is an orderly, integrated set of statements
that describes, explains and predicts behaviour.
Think of theories as windows. Every
window gives us a different view, even if
we are looking at the same landscape.
Similarly, theories allow us to view the
situation and people from different
perspectives.
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26. 1. Psychodynamic/ Psychoanalytic
Perspective
Emphasizes unconscious psychological processes (for
example, wishes and fears of which we’re not fully
aware).
Children move through series of stages in which they
confront conflicts between biological drives and social
expectations.
Resolution of these conflicts determines person’s ability
to learn, to get along with others and to cope with
anxiety.
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29. 2. Cognitive Perspective
Focuses on the processes that allow people to
know, understand, and think about the world
Emphasize effects of conscious thoughts on
development.
Theories include
a. Piaget’s cognitive stages,
b. Information processing theory.
c. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
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30. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive
Development
Proposed by Jean Piaget (1896–1980) Swiss psychologist
Believes that children are active thinkers, constantly trying
to construct more advanced understandings of the world
and organizing what they learn into cognitive schemas.
Children go through four stages of cognitive development
Each stage is age-related and characterized by a distinct
way of thinking that is qualitatively different from thinking
in other stages.
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32. Information Processing Theory
Information Processing is how individuals perceive,
analyze, manipulate, use, and remember and retrieve
information.
Not a single theory but a generic name applied to
theoretical perspectives dealing with sequence and
execution of cognitive events.
Basic cognitive changes generally occur in five areas:
Attention, Memory, Processing Speed, Organizaton of
Thinking, Metacognition
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33. Attention.
Selective attention: The process by which one
focuses on one stimulus while tuning out another.
Divided attention: The ability to pay attention to two or
more stimuli at the same time.
Memory Working memory and Long-term memory.
Processing
Speed.
Improves sharply between age five and mid adolescence,
Levels off around age 15,
Does not change between late adolescence and adulthood.
Organization
of Thinking.
As children mature, they approach problems with strategy.
Metacognition
Monitoring one’s own cognitive activity during the thinking
process. Provides the ability to plan ahead, see the future
consequences of an action, and provide alternative
explanations of events.
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34. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Emphasizes social and cultural influences on child’s
developing mind.
Social interaction, especially cooperative dialogues
between children and more knowledgeable members of
society, helps children acquire cultural values, beliefs
and customs.
Cognitive development is socially mediated- dependent
on the assistance of adults and more expert peers while
tackling new challenges.
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36. Behavioural and Social Cognitive
Theories
Behaviorism emphasize behavior that can be observed
and believe that all behavior is influenced by physical
and social environment.
Classical conditioning is a form of learning in which the
person or animal comes to associate environmental
stimuli with physiological response.
Discovered by Ivan Pavlov: Russian Psychologist
John Watson applied the concept to infants
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39. Operant Conditioning (B. F.
Skinner)
Behaviour becomes more or less probable depending
on its consequences.
The frequency of a child’s behavior can be increased
by Following it with a wide variety of reinforcers such a
food praise, a warm smile, toy.
Behaviour can be decreased through punishment such
as withdrawal of priviliges, parental disapproval etc.
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41. Ecological Theories
Views the child as developing within a complex
system of relationships affected by multiple levels
of the surrounding environment.
Bronfenbrenner recently characterized his
perspective as Bioecological model.
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