This document provides an overview of child development from infancy through adolescence. It discusses the multidisciplinary nature of the field and covers key aspects of development including physical, cognitive, and socioemotional growth. Major developmental theories such as psychoanalytic, behaviorism, cognitive, and biological approaches are introduced. Common research methods used to study child development like experiments and correlation analysis are described. The role of research findings in influencing social policy to improve children's lives is also mentioned.

1. Chapter 1: Exploring
Child Development

2. Child Development: Age
Infants and
Toddlers
Birth-
Age 2
Early Childhood
3-6
Middle Childhood
7-11
Adolescence
12+

3. Defining
In the ft
ieh
ld o
e
f chi
F
ld i
de
eve
lld
opment, professionals
from psychology, education, sociology,
anthropology,
social work, biology, medicine,
economics, and other related fields
work together.

4. Development
Physical Cognitive Socioemotional
Growth in size,
strength, and
muscle
coordination.
Changes in how
children perceive
the world, think,
remember
information, and
communicate.
Changes in how
children interact
with other
people and
manage their
emotions.

5. Themes in Child Development

6. Themes in Child Development
Neuroscience

7. Themes and Child Development Continued
Multiculturalism and
Diversity
Researchers are
interested in the
positive and negative
effects of diversity on
a micro and macro
level of society
Positive Development and
Resilience
Mental
Illness
Birth
Defects
Family
Problems
Abuse
Negative Pathways of
Development/Resilience
(Positive Psychology)

8. Review
1. Which of the following professions contribute to the field of child
development?
A. Psychology
B. Sociology
C. Economics
D. All of the Above
2. Learning new strategies for solving problems and remember
information is part of
A. Cognitive Development
B. Physical Development
C. Social Development
D. Natural Development

9. Review Continued
3.What was John Watson’s position of the nature-nurture debate?
A. Nature plays the biggest role in child development
B. Nurture plays the biggest role in child development
C. Nature and nurture play equal roles in child development
D. You can never tell which force (nature or nurture) is playing the biggest
role
4. True or False: Genetics is an example of how nature can influence a
child’s development.

10. Review Continued
5. The general conclusion that researchers draw from studies of
twins and adopted children is that
A. Nature governs most of child development
B. Nurture governs most of child development
C. Nature and nurture both interact to govern child development
D. Neither nature or nurture play strong roles in child development
6. True or False: The fact that IQ scores are more similar
between identical twins than between paternal twins shows
the influence of nurture on children’s intellectual
development.

11. Major Developmental Theories
Psychoanalytic
Theories
Behavioral and Social
Learning Theories
Cognitive Theories
Biological Theories Systems Theories

12. Psychoanalytic Theory
Conflict

13. Psychoanalytic Theory
Continued

14. Psychoanalytical Theory
Continued: Psychosocial
Theory

15. Behavioral and Social
Learning Theories (Ivan
Pavl ov & John Wat son)
• Focus on observable conditions
in environment and how they
relate to observable behaviors

16. Behavioral and Social Learning Theories Continued:
Operant Conditioning
(B.F. Skinner)

17. Social Learning Theory Continued (Albert Bandura)

18. Focus on
how
children
learn to
think
Cognitive Theories
Jean Piaget
Assimilation: The process of bringing new
tasks into a scheme that already exists in
the mind. If assimilation is unsuccessful,
the accommodation needs to be
accommodated. (Child drops the ball)
Accomodation: Process of adjusting or
adapting a scheme to better fit the new
example. (Child learns to hold the ball with
both hands)

19. Cognitive Theory Continued:
Sociocultural Theory
Lev Vygotsky
Emphasized how
children adopt the
thought structures
represented in the
language and
culture that
surrounds them.

20. Biological Theories
Neuroscience
Ethology: An area of study focusing
on the adaptive significance and
survival value of behaviors.

21. Biological Theories Continued:
Konrad Lorenz

22. Biological Theories Continued:
Survival of the Fittest
Charles Darwin

23. Systems Theories:
Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological
System

24. Systems Theory Continued:
Dynamic Systems Theory
 Theories that use models from mathematics and physics to
understand complex systems of development.
 Dynamic systems theories depart from conventional
approaches because they seek to understand the overall
behavior of a system not by dissecting it into parts, but by
asking how and under what circumstances the parts
cooperate to produce a whole pattern.
 This theory tries to predict future behaviors and events
based off statistics.

25. Review
1. Who proposed that an important component of personality forms when a
child identifies with the same-sex parent?
A. Sigmund Freud
B. Erik Erikson
C. B.F
. Skinner
D. Urie Bronfenbrenner
2. The microsystem, mesosystem, and macrosystem are parts of
A. Erikson’s Psychoanalytic Theory
B. Banduras Social Learning Theory
C. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory
D. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
3. Which of the following is NOT one of the useful functions served by
theories?
A. Theories summarize the facts as currently known
B. Theories allow prediction of future behavior and events
C. Theories contradict the facts gathered by scientific observation

26. Review Continued
4. True or False: The CT scan, PET scan, and fMRI are tools used in
neuroscience to study brain development.
5. In her research on reading, Dr. Sam uses measures such as the
number of words a child can pronounce correctly and analyzes
how this relates to their scores on reading comprehension tests.
Dr. Sam is most likely using which theory to guide her work?
A. Behaviorism
B. Cognitive Theory
C. Contextual Theory
D. Psychoanalytic Theory
6. True or False: Dynamic Systems Theories are useful in isolating
variables like nature and nurture and determining which one has
the most influence on development.

27. Research in Child Development
Helps
identify
patterns in
childhood
behavior
Descriptive Methods: Research
methods that describe a behavior
of interest, such as how often it
occurs and under what conditions.
Correlation Method: Research
method that measures the
degree to which two or more
variables are related or
associated.
Positive Correlation: Hypothetical
correlation where higher reading
scores in second grade tend to be
associated with families who read
more to children at preschool age.
Negative Correlation: Hypothetical
correlation where lower birth weights tend
to be associated with babies born to
mothers who consumed more alcoholic
beverages during pregnancy

28. Research in Child
Development
Continued: Path
Analysis
Sets of multiple
correlations that show
how several variables
relate to one another

29. ResearchinChild
DevelopmentContinued:
HypotheticalExperiment
Independent
Variable
Dependent
Variable
Experiments
The variable that
the researchers
systematically
manipulate in the
experiment.
The variable that
represent the
outcomes that
we measure;
outcomes are
dependent on
the manipulation
of the
independent
variable
Researchers
systematically
manipulate the
independent
variable to
determine if it
causes a difference
in the dependent
variable.

30. Research in Child
Development Continued:
Methods for Assessing
Development

31. Ethics in Research with Children

32. Review
1. Which of the following research methods is capable of demonstrating a
cause-and-effect relationship?
A. Correlational Methods
B. Experimental Methods
C. Path Analysis Methods
D. All of the above
2. True or False: Differential Dropout is a problem that plagues the cross-sectional
method of assessing development.
3.True or False: One reason that all researchers must have their studies
approved by an institutional review board before working with children is so
that the rights and privacy of the children will be well protected.
4.Attendance in school tends to decline as drug use increases. This is an
example of
A. Positive Effect
C. Lack of Correlation
B. Negative Correlation
D. Cohort Correlation

33. Review Continued
5. Dr. Jorgenson conducted an experiment to test the effectiveness of a new parent
training program. She randomly assigned 40 parents to two groups. One group
received the new parent training program, and the other group received the old
standard program. After the training programs were finished, Dr. Jorgenson asked
each parent to rate their interactions with their children. In this scenario, what is
the independent variable?
A. The two-parent training programs ( new versus standard)
B. The interaction rating given by each parent after the training.
C. The number of parents assigned to each training program.
D. The amount of time each parent spent in the training program.
6. Which of the following is the most important limitation of correlational research?
A. It is difficult to obtain positive correlations.
B. Correlation does not prove causation.
C. Correlational research cannot describe the complex relations among three or more variables.
D. Correlation coefficients do not tell you anything about the strength of the relationship between
variables

34. Social Policy Attempts to
improve the lives of
children and
families by using
child development
research to affect
laws, regulations,
and programs.

35. Review
1. Research findings about child development have been used
A. To offer practical advice to parents about raising children.
B. To stimulate new laws, government regulations, and other social policies.
C. To help professionals work with children in therapeutic, educational, and other
settings.
D. All of the Above
2. True or False: People interesting in working with children, or working to
improve the lives of children, can find employment in social service agencies,
government agencies, and many corporations.
3. True or False: Child development researchers are often responsible for
evaluating how changes in social policy affect children.
4.An overall theme of this chapter is that the best and most reliable information
about child development comes from
A. Casual observation of children
B. The personal opinions of authorities
C. The personal stories told by parents
D. Research that uses the scientific method