Presentation by Andreas Schleicher Tackling the School Absenteeism Crisis 30 ...
Berger - Chapter 1 (audio)
1.
2. 2
1. Introduction
2. Fact or Fiction?
3. Defining Development
4. Four Characteristics of Development
5. Developmental Study as a Science
6. Cautions from Science
7. Closing Thoughts
3. Developmental Fact or Fiction? Fiction Fact
1. The science of human development is the study of how and
why people change as they grow older, as well as how and why
they remain the same.
2. An experiment is always the best way to investigate a
developmental issue.
3. Developmental psychologists almost never base their research
on the study of one group of people over a long period of time.
4. When two variables are correlated, it means that one
caused the other.
3
4. Is the question of nature or nurture more
about how much rather than which factor?
4
nature: Traits, capacities,
limitations each individual
inherits genetically from parents
(at conception).
nurture: All environmental
influences that affect
development (after conception).
Influences
5. Teratogen Effects Timing
Radiation
Disrupted development of central nervous system. 8 to 15 weeks most critical
Growth and developmental retardation 3 to 8 weeks most critical
Microcephaly 3 to 38 weeks
5
Radiation
Tobacco
Alcohol
Cocaine
What happens when a potentially harmful agent — a teratogen —
is introduced at a critical period of prenatal development?
Tobacco use by mother
Limb malformation
4 to 6 weeks
Urinary tract damage
Tobacco use by father
(second-hand smoke)
Low birthweight
Late pregnancy
Reduction in weight by an average of 2 oz.
Alcohol
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) 3 to 8 weeks most critical
Fetal Alcohol Effect
3 to 38 weeksGrowth and developmental retardation
Craniofacial dysmorphism
Cocaine
Growth retardation
3 to 8 weeks
Small head size
Premature birth
After 17 weeksProblems with placenta
Low birth weight
Attention difficulties
After birth for several years
Emotional regulation
critical period: When a
particular type of
development growth (in body
or behavior) must happen if it
is ever going to happen.
sensitive period: When a
certain type of development is
most likely, although it may
still happen later.
Connections Between Change and Time
6. dynamic-systems theory: A view of
human development as an ongoing,
ever-changing interaction between
the physical and emotional being
and between the person and every
aspect of his or her environment,
including the family and society.
How do people interact with other
people, and do so continuously
over time, each interaction
affecting the other?
6
Dynamic Systems Theory
7. 7
life-span perspective: Study of
human development that takes
into account all phases of life.
How do human characteristics
change in every direction to reflect
development as multidirectional?
Multidirectional
8. 8
ecological-systems approach:
The view that in the study of
human development, the
person should be considered
in all the contexts and
interactions that constitute a
life.
How does the ecological-
systems approach work?
Multicontextual
9. 9
The enduring behaviors,
ideas, attitudes, and
traditions shared by a
large group of people and
transmitted from one
generation to the next.
culture
People whose
ancestors were born in
the same region and
who often share a
language, culture, and
religion.
ethnic group
A group of people who
are regarded by
themselves or by others
as distinct from other
groups on the basis of
physical appearance.
(Social scientists think
race is a misleading
concept.)
race
Multicontextual
10. When monkey
sees, why does
monkey do?
10
mirror neurons:
Cells in an
observer’s brain
that respond to
an action
performed by
someone else in
the same
way they would
if the observer
had actually
performed that
action.
Multidisciplinary
11. Brain
damage/
injury
The brain
is plastic,
able to
reassign
neurons
Change may
occur, some
functions
may be
restored.
plasticity: Human traits can be molded (as plastic can be), yet
people maintain a certain durability of identity (as plastic does).
How plastic (moldable) are the brain and personality?
11
Plasticity
12. What is the five-step procedure used to answer questions with empirical research
and data-based conclusions?
scientific method: A way to answer questions using
empirical research and data-based conclusions.
Develop hypothesis 2 Test hypothesis 3Curiosity 1
Draw conclusions 4 Report results 5
Raise a question
A prediction that
can be tested
Design and conduct
research; gather
empirical evidence
Support or refute
hypothesis
Share data, conclusions,
alternate explanations
12
Steps of the Scientific Method
13. scientific observation: A method of testing
a hypothesis by unobtrusively watching and
recording participants’ behavior in a
systematic and objective manner.
Where do
scientific
observations
take place?
13
Scientific Observation as a Way to Test Hypotheses
14. SurveyInformation is
collected from a
large number of
people Acquiring valid
survey data is not
easy
Some people
lie and some
change their
minds
What happens when a survey is taken?
survey: A research method in which information is collected from a large
number of people by interviews, written questions, or some other means.
Survey
answers are
influenced by wording
and sequence of
questions
14
The Survey as a Way to Test Hypotheses
Randomly
selected
15. How Do You Design an Experiment?
Many participants,
measured on many
characteristics,
including the
dependent
variable
(the behavior
being studied)
Experimental
group
Special treatment
(independent
variable)
No special
treatment
Significant change
in the dependent
variable
No change in the
variable
(predicted
outcome)
Comparison
(or control) group
(two equal
groups)
dependent variable: In an
experiment, the variable
that may change as a result of
whatever new condition or
situation the experimenter adds.
independent variable: In an
experiment, the variable that is
introduced to see what effect it has
on the dependent variable.
(Also called experimental variable.)
15
The Experiment as a Way to Test Hypotheses
16. Does one of these patterns
accurately represent intelligence
as people age?
65
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
25 32 39 46 55 60 67 74 81 88
Cross-Sectional
Longitudinal
Age
T=Score
Source: Schale, 1988
cross-sectional research:
A research design that
compares groups of people who
differ in age but are similar in
other important characteristics.
longitudinal research: A
research design in which the
same individuals are followed
over time and their
development is repeatedly
assessed.
cohort: A group defined by the
shared ages of its members.
16
Studying Change Over Time
17. cross-sequential research: A hybrid research design in which researchers first study several
groups of people of different ages (a cross-sectional approach) and then follow those groups
over the years (a longitudinal approach). (Also called cohort-sequential research or time-
sequential research.)
How are cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs combined?
Cross-sequential
Total time: 16 years, plus double and triple analysis
2-year-olds 6-year-olds 10-year-olds 14-year-olds 18-year-olds
2-year-olds 6-year-olds 10-year-olds 14-year-olds
2-year-olds 6-year-olds 10-year-olds
[4 years later] [4 years later] [4 years later] [4 years later]
[4 years later] [4 years later] [4 years later]
[4 years later] [4 years later]
Time 1 Time 1 + 4 years Time 1 + 8 years Time 1 + 12 years Time 1 + 16 years
For cohort
effects compare
groups on the
diagonals
(same age,
different years).
17
Studying Change Over Time
18. correlation:
A number
between +1.0
and -1.0 that
indicates the
degree of
relationship
between two
variables,
expressed in
terms of their
likelihood that
one variable
will (or will not)
occur when the
other variable
does (or does
not).
How do variables correlate?
Quiz on Correlation
Two Variables
Positive, Negative,
or Zero Correlation?
Why?
(Third Variable)
1. Ice cream sales
and murder rate
2. Learning to read and
number of baby teeth
3. Sex of adult and
their average number
of offspring
Positive
Negative
Zero
third variable:
heat
third variable:
age
no third variable:
each child must
have a parent of
each sex
18
Correlation and Causation
19. How is quantitative and qualitative research used?
19
quantitative research: Research
data expressed with numbers,
such as ranks or scales.
qualitative research: Research
that considers qualities instead of
quantities.
Quantity and Quality
20. 20
How do we ensure that research is
done ethically?
code of ethics: A set of moral and specific
guidelines principles that members of a
profession or group are expected to
follow.
Institutional Review Board (IRB): A group
that exists within most educational and
medical institutions whose purpose is to
ensure that research follows established
guidelines and remains ethical.
Ethics
21. How does science make the study
of human development possible?
21
Closing Thoughts
Editor's Notes
Instruction:Click to reveal each question, then the answer.
Please note, this page is available to use with a clicker system.
Instruction:
Eating the same diet will affect individuals in different ways since each person has his or her own genetic vulnerability. That vulnerability, coupled with behaviors related to eating, affects an individual’s weight and health.
Genetic vulnerability does not only apply to nutrition and eating. In a famous developmental study from New Zealand, a variant of the MAOA gene in boys, along with the kind of parental treatment they received, affected the likelihood of some subjects committing a violent crime (Caspi et al., 2002).
Instructions Click to reveal teratogens, their timing, and effects.
There may be more than one factor (including genetic vulnerability) involved in teratogenic effects—and more than one kind of teratogenic damage.
We know that tobacco increases the risk of malformation of limbs, the urinary tract, and may affect a baby’s lungs; untreated, a baby born with syphilis may experience brain and bone damage and eventual death. But, it is often difficult to tell which factor has caused a teratogenic effect.
Tragically, between 1957 and 1961, thousands of newly pregnant women in 30 nations took thalidomide, an antinausea drug. Thalidomide disrupts a critical period of development between days 28 and 54. So women who took that medication during that time had newborns with malformed or absent limbs.
Instruction:Automatic animation.
Up until about 50 years ago, developmental researchers mostly studied children up to about age 18.
It is now apparent that adults of all ages, as well as children, are continually affected by one another and by life circumstances.
Instructions:Click to play video.
At any age and life stage, gains can lead to losses and losses can lead to gains.
Every change produces unexpected advances or retreats.
Instructions:Click each concentric circle to reveal details of the ecological model. In the 1970s, Urie Bronfenbrenner identified different levels and systems that interact over the life of an individual.
He named this the ecological-systems approach, and then renamed it the bioecological theory toward the end of his life.
Instructions:Click to reveal a definition and an illustrative photograph.
Unlike genetic differences, social constructions, which are the ideas created for a society, can change (Rothenberg, 2007).
But being a member of an ethnic minority group does not mean you have a common cultural experience with all the other members of that group (McLoyd, 2006).
Instruction:Animation is automatic here.
Researchers in various disciplines see important implications in the discovery of mirror neurons.
For instance, social psychologists think mirror neurons help people empathize with one another.
Cognitive psychologists suggest that mirror neurons explain newborns’ ability to imitate what they see (Decety & Meyer, 2008; Iacoboni, 2009).
Instruction:
Here’s an example of what the flow chart shows: When one woman’s brain area for balance was destroyed (due to a prescription drug overdose), neuroscientists successfully reprogrammed her brain, which allowed her to move with balance again. But plasticity doesn’t mean that anything is possible, just that change may occur—for better or worse.
Keep in mind that every trait within an individual can be altered at any point in the life span.
Also remember that change is ongoing, although neither random nor easy.
Instruction:Click to reveal an explanation of each step.
The scientific community accepts conclusions with replication, which is the repetition of a study, using different participants. So you can think of replication as a sixth step in the scientific method.
Although reliance on evidence is intended to eliminate bias, scientists realize that any single study may include unknown distortions: therefore replication, elaboration, and analysis by other scientists are needed.
Instructions:
Observations may take place in a natural setting, in a laboratory, or in searches of archival data.
The purpose for being “unobtrusive” is to avoid influencing the behavior of the people you are watching.
Instruction:Click each block and reveal an important aspect of the survey.
Elections would be easy to predict if people voted as they told survey takers they would!
If we want our survey to accurately describe a population, the sample we survey should be selected randomly from the whole population, not just selected conveniently based on the people we come across.
Instruction:Click each colored shape (from left to right) to reveal design elements in an experiment.
Participants are divided into two groups matched on important characteristics, especially the behavior that is the study focus. To make sure the groups do not differ in any way besides the variable being tested, participants are randomly assigned to either the experimental group or the control group.
The dependent variable, which is the variable that depends on the independent variable.
Special treatment or intervention is given (the independent variable) to one group (the experimental group).
Instruction:Click to begin animation.
Cross-sectional studies confound age and cohort effects, so these results look more pessimistic than necessary.
Longitudinal studies confound age and historical time, so you can’t tease out a number of differences related to subjects’ age between testing times.
The cross-sectional study makes older folks look less intelligent; but those people were educated in a different era.
Instruction:
Cross-sequential study will analyze data three ways:First, it will compare groups of the same ages studied at different times; any differences over time between groups who are the same age are probably cohort effects.
The second analysis compares people within a group, as they get older; any differences are the result of time (not only age).
The third analysis compares differences between the same people as they grow older, but after the cohort effects are taken into account (from the first analysis). Any remaining differences are almost certainly the result of age.
You can find the cohort effects by following the diagonals.
This is the most time-consuming and complex of research designs, but it yields the best information.
Instruction:Click to reveal the answers in the quiz.
A correlation indicates that only two variables are related, not that one variable causes the other to occur. For instance, there is a correlation between immigrants in the United States (when compared with native-born in the same ethnic group) and having fewer low-birthweight babies. But the status of “immigrant” alone does not cause a woman to not have a low-birthweight baby.
Always remember that correlation is not causation.
Instruction:
Most institutions of higher education emphasize quantitative data.
Sometimes scientists translate qualitative research into quantifiable data; sometimes they use qualitative studies to suggest hypotheses for quantifiable research.
Instruction:
Most institutions of higher education emphasize quantitative data.Sometimes scientists translate qualitative research into quantifiable data; sometimes they use qualitative studies to suggest hypotheses for quantifiable research.
