developmental psychology lecture 1.pptx

1. Developmental
Psychology

2. Overview of lecture’s content
• What is developmental psychology?
• Nature and scope of developmental psychology
• Goals of developmental psychology
• Key issues in developmental psychology
• Research methods used in this field of psychology
• Ethical issues in research in developmental psychology

3. What is Developmental Psychology?
• Developmental psychology is the branch of psychology that tries to
understand how a child grows and develops, and how the role of the
family and schooling can impact on this. It looks at how our behaviour,
our thinking patterns, our emotions and our personalities begin and
change from birth to adulthood.
• It is scientific study of changes that occur in human beings over the
course of their life span. The pattern of change that begins at
conception and continues through the life cycle.

4. Meaning of growth and development
Growth
• The term growth is used in a
purely physical sense. it refers to
increase in size, length ,height
and weight.
• Change in quantitative aspect
(can be measured, observable)
• Doesn’t continue throughout
life. It stops once maturity is
attained.
Development
• development implies overall
changes in shape, form or structure
resulting in the improved
working/functioning.
• Change in quality or character
(improvement in functioning and
behaviour, difficult to be measured
directly)
• It’s a continuous process and goes
from womb to tomb. It doesn’t end
with the attainment of maturity

5. Growth
• Growth may or may not bring
development. A child may grow
in terms of weight by becoming
fat but this growth may not
bring any functional
improvement (qualitative
change) or development.
Development
• development is also possible
without growth as we see in
cases of some children who do
not gain in terms of height,
weight or size but they do
experience functional
improvement or development in
physical, social ,emotional or
intellectual aspects .

6. Periods of development

7. Nature and Scope of Developmental
Psychology

8. Developmental psychology
is multidisciplinary
• Developmental psychology ties together
social, emotional and cognitive
development through the study of the
growing child. It is a wide-reaching
branch of psychology and for that
reason is, in our point of view, one of
the most rewarding to study.
• Biological, cognitive, and
socioemotional processes are
inextricably intertwined
(Diamond,2007).

9. • Biological, Cognitive & Socioemotional Processes
We defined development as the pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through the
life span. The pattern is complex because it is the product of biological, cognitive, and socioemotional
processes.
• Biological processes produce changes in an individual’s physical nature.
Genes inherited from parents, the development of the brain, height and weight gains, changes in motor
skills, the hormonal changes of puberty, and cardiovascular decline are all examples of biological
processes that affect development.
• Cognitive processes
These refer to changes in the individual’s thought, intelligence, and language. Watching a colourful
mobile, swinging above the crib, putting together a two- word sentence, memorizing a poem, imagining
what it would be like to be a movie star, and solving a crossword puzzle all involve cognitive processes.
• Socioemotional processes
They involve changes in the individual’s relationships with other people, changes in emotions, and
changes in personality.
A child’s response to a parent’s touch, a toddler’s aggressive attack on a playmate, a school-age child’s
development of assertiveness, an adolescent’s joy at a party, and the affection of an elderly woman all
reflect the role of socioemotional processes in development.

10. Example • Consider a baby smiling in response to a
parent’s touch. This response depends on
biological processes (the physical nature of
touch and responsiveness to it), cognitive
processes (the ability to understand
intentional acts), and socioemotional
processes (the act of smiling often reflects a
positive emotional feeling, and smiling helps
to connect us in positive ways with other
human beings).

11. Scope of Developmental Psychology
• Developmental psychologists are interested in all aspects of our behavioural and
psychological development.
• They are interested in the social development of a child: from trying to understand
the complexity of the relationship between a new-born infant and parent to the role of
play in developing long-lasting friendships.
• They are interested in the cognitive development of the child: the development of
language; understanding numbers; and developing an appreciation for art and
poetry.
• They are interested too in emotional development and the way we make decisions
and the role of parents and friends in developing our sense of morality and teenage
decision making: careers, friendships, sexuality and risk taking.

12. Goals of Developmental Psychology
Description
Explanation
Prediction
Human behaviour
(growth and
development)

13. Key issues in Developmental Psychology

15. Nature and nurture
• The nature-nurture-issue revolves around the idea that both nature and
nurturing may play a role in the growth and development of an
individual.
• Some argue the tabula rasa theory, that every person's mind is a blank
slate at birth, while others believe that some traits are inborn.
• Some researchers place a great deal of emphasis on the nurturing a
child receives during his or her formative years, believing this nurturing
results in the formation of traits and characteristics in an individual.

16. Stability and change
• Stability implies personality traits present during infancy endure
throughout the lifespan. In contrast, change theorists argue that
personalities are modified by interactions with family, experiences
at school, and acculturation.
• This capacity for change is called plasticity. For example, Rutter
(1981) discovered than somber babies living in understaffed
orphanages often become cheerful and affectionate when placed in
socially stimulating adoptive homes.

17. Example of Stability and change
• Simply put, we can ask 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?).

18. Continuity-discontinuity
• Continuous development: change that occurs at a steady pace,
perhaps showing a constant, consistent improvement or growth.
• Discontinuous development: change that occurs in what appear to be
great bursts of achievement following a period of steady
consolidation of perhaps knowledge or skill.
• There are two contrasting positions on developmental change.
According to those who hold to the first position, development is best
viewed as a continuous process. That is, development is conceived of
as a process of the gradual accumulation of a behaviour, skill, or
knowledge. On this model, development proceeds in a smooth and
orderly fashion, with each change building on previous abilities.

19. • In contrast, those who hold to the second view would suggest that
developmental change is best characterized as discontinuous in
nature.
• These theorists suggest that behaviours or skills often change
qualitatively across time, and that new organizations of behaviours,
skills, or knowledge emerge in a rather abrupt or discrete fashion.
• The notion of a stage of development is central to discontinuous
views of development.

20. • The stage theorists tend to hold the view that development is a
discontinuous process of change. Piaget and other theorists saw
children of different ages as being qualitatively different: that is,
that there is a significant, remarkable difference in how the older
children think and appear to make sense of the world.
• Piaget noted that younger children were not able to complete certain
tasks that an older child could, and would, with ease. Piaget
demonstrated this with the conservation of liquid task

22. Research designs used in Developmental
Psychology
• Cross sectional research design
• Longitudinal study
• Experimental studies
• Qualitative and quantitative methods

23. • The research methods used in developmental psychology research
have evolved to take into account the particular difficulties of
investigating behaviour and other phenomena in infants and young
children. A questionnaire might be a suitable tool to use with the
adult population to measure, for example, voting behaviour, choice
of washing powder or even emotional states. However, when dealing
with young children, developmental psychologists need to consider
other factors, such as reading ability, comprehension and linguistic
capability. A 4-year-old child, for instance, may not be able to read
the questions, or write an answer, but if asked the questions by the
researcher, it is possible that the child will be able to reply verbally.

24. • Developmental psychologists employ a number of research methods
to aid them in answering their research questions, but the most
commonly used are observations, case studies, questionnaires and
experimental methods.
• All of these methods are used by psychologists and other behavioural
scientists but, for developmental psychologists in particular, the
methods are often refined for use with very young participants.
Whichever method is used, it tends to fall into one of two categories:
either it is a longitudinal or cross-sectional study design or it involves
quantitative or qualitative research.

25. Cross-sectional research design
• For Example,
What is the average score in a maths test given to 7-year-old children? Does
maths score at age 7 years predict ability in maths at age 16 years?
To answer the first research question, you will need to design a research
project that measures every 7-yearold child’s ability in mathematics. One
way of doing this would be to go into all the schools in the region, hand out
the same maths test to all the 7-year-old children there and collect in their
scores. When you have retrieved all the scores, you can then work out what
the average score in the maths test is for this age group and confidently
report your findings. The research design you have used here is a cross-
sectional research design.

26. • The cross-sectional research design allows researchers to collect data
that describe the current situation – in our example, mathematical
ability. Data collected in this way can reveal the lowest and highest
score, the most common score (the modal score), the mid-point score
(the median score) and the average score (the mean score).
• In this example, the research design will allow you to calculate the
norm or average maths ability in 7-year-olds and to show what the
range of ability in 7-year-olds might be. This information could then
be used by educators to identify children who are particularly able in
maths, who might be encouraged to study more difficult problems,
and children who are struggling with maths and who might need
more help.

27. Limitations of cross sectional research design
• The cross-sectional research design is, therefore, a useful way of
conducting research, but it does have its weaknesses. This research
method only allows us to calculate mathematical ability in children
aged 7 years at one point in time. It does not allow us to calculate
whether maths scores in children aged 7 years have changed over
time and it does not tell us whether maths ability at age 7 years
predicts maths ability (or any other type of ability) at a later age. The
research design has only allowed us to see a ‘snapshot’ of
mathematical ability. Like a photograph, the research can only
provide us with information on one form of ability in one age group of
children at one point in time. Thus, the researcher is limited in what
she can infer from her findings.

28. Longitudinal Research Design
• The longitudinal research method, however, allows the researcher to
measure change over time and to find evidence of strong associations
or predictors of this change.
• The second research question (does maths score at age 7 years
predict ability in maths at age 16 years?) requires a longitudinal
research design. To answer this question, you need to start in the
same way as before and hand out a standard maths test to all the 7-
year-old children in a region and collect in all their scores.
• At this point, however, the method of data collection changes. You
must then return to the same children when they are 16 years old
and collect their scores in another standard maths test.

29. • The longitudinal research design is an extremely useful tool for
measuring change over time.
• Longitudinal research relies on testing the same participants on at
least two time points using the same test of measurement. It can be
carried out over a couple of days or, as in this example, over a number
of years.

30. Quantitative methods
• Quantitative methods can be described as methods that use numbers
to describe and define concepts (Neuman, 2007). A typical
quantitative method would use a survey or questionnaire to collect
numerically coded data.

31. Commonly used quantitative methods
• Questionnaires and surveys
A questionnaire or survey is a quick way of collecting a lot of
information. It comprises simply a list of questions. Questionnaires
usually require answers to be collected in a structured format. Thus you
can collect yes/no answers, answers on a scale of 1 to 5, answers that
fall into categories and answers on a continuous scale.

32. • Inventories in developmental psychology
An example of an inventory used in developmental psychology is the
MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI). The
MacArthur–Bates CDI forms are parent-based forms for assessing a
child’s language and communication abilities. There are versions for
infants aged 8–16 months, toddlers aged 16–30 months and children
aged 30–37 months.
The CDI form for infants measures their ability to understand words
and gestures, whilst the CDI forms for toddlers and children measure
their ability to say as well as understand words and short sentences.

33. Advantages of quantitative method
• Quantitative methods have the advantage of being quick and easy to
carry out. This also means that quantitative methods can often be a
fairly inexpensive way of collecting large quantities of data. Another
advantage of quantitative methods is that the data collected can
often be analysed mathematically and statistically to provide
information on norms and variation within the studied population.

34. Limitations of quantitative methods
• Quantitative methods provide numerical data on behaviour but rarely
provide a satisfying answer to why the behaviour occurs. The
methods are good for listing opinions, beliefs and knowledge but are
unlikely to help you truly understand why a person thinks the way
they do or how events in their past have affected the person they are
now. Thus, quantitative methods are useful for providing an overview
of behaviour but are unable to reveal the personal, in-depth
experience of your participants

35. Experimental methods
• Experimental methods in psychology refer to a manipulation of
behaviour, usually in a laboratory setting but also recently in more
naturalistic settings.
• Examples of experimental methods are measuring recall of a list of
words under conditions of silence or noise, measuring mathematical
performance under conditions of high or low stress, and measuring
young babies’ responses to their mother’s and other faces.
• All of these experiments involve the manipulation of a variable
(silence or noise, high or low stress, mother’s or other’s face) on a
type of behaviour – memory, maths ability and face recognition.

36. Qualitative methods
• Qualitative methods can be described as methods that describe and
define concepts, without the use of numbers. A typical qualitative
method involves observing behaviour or, more commonly, talking to
individuals or groups to discover their personal experiences.
• Commonly used qualitative methods are : observational study,
interviews, case studies

37. observations
• Using an observation study essentially involves watching a person or
group of people in a particular situation.

38. Interviews
• There are two main types of interview used in psychology, the structured
and the open interview. The structured interview is useful for collecting
opinions and preferences or data that require the respondent to answer
every question from a pre-planned list.
• the structured interview ensures that all respondents answer all the same
questions, the open interview allows the interviewer and respondent the
flexibility to explore the answers given and the issues raised within them.
Neither the interviewer nor the participant is required necessarily to
answer a set of questions and the flow of the interview depends on the
answers given.
• Lawrence Kohlberg (1963) used interviews in his famous paper on moral
development

39. Case studies
• The case study approach to research might be employed in a number of
situations but invariably because the researcher notes something unique or
interesting about a person or situation that warrants further investigation.
• Case studies can provide a wealth of information if carried out accurately.
The researcher may use this method to report the effectiveness of a
particular counselling technique or teaching method that brought about
significant behavioural change in the participant.
• An example of case study work comes from some of the most influential
work on child–mother attachment and the effects of periods of brief
separation carried out in London in the 1960s and early 1970s by
researchers James and Joyce Robertson (Robertson and Robertson, 1989).

40. Ethical issues in research in Developmental
Psychology
• Consent and assent
• Power relationships, demand
characteristics and coercion
• Deception and debriefing participants
• Protection from physical harm and
psychological harm – distress, upset,
guilt, loss of self-esteem
• Participant confidentiality

41. Consent and assent
• Taking an informed consent from the participants
(the participants know what the study is about and what type of activity
they will be involved in, and agree to take part, usually signing a form
confirming this. With children under the age of 16 years, you have to get
permission not only from the children but also from their parents to
approach them for your study, and if you are conducting the study in a
school, from the teachers and head teacher.)
• (another is people with learning difficulties) who cannot truly give
informed consent until they have attained adult status, so a written or
verbal statement of agreement from them to taking part in the study is
known as assent.

42. Power relationships, demand characteristics and
coercion
• One of the concerns with research is the power relationship that can
exist between researcher and participant.
• This is where the participant feels under pressure to act in a certain
way either as a result of simply taking part in the research, or because
they want to please the researcher.
• The researcher therefore needs to be aware of the impact they may
have on the behaviour of the participant and to work hard to provide
a suitable atmosphere for the research that will encourage an honest
reaction from the participant.

43. • Related to this concept is the notion of coercion. Offering a financial
reward or some other benefit for completing a study may convince a
participant to continue with a study that is making them feel
uncomfortable rather than legitimately asking to withdraw from the study.
• Researchers commonly offer to pay travel and other expenses to their
participants rather than a fee for completing the work, and it is vital that
the researcher makes the participant (especially a child) aware that they
can withdraw from the study at any time. It is good practice to provide
breaks in the study so that the participant can be offered the opportunity
to discontinue the research project. No participant should feel that they
have been forced either to take part in the study or to continue with the
study beyond a point where they feel uncomfortable

44. Deception and debriefing participants
• Deception: the deliberate act of creating false knowledge in your
participants for the purpose of influencing the outcomes of the
research study.
• Occasionally you may want to introduce a factor into your research
project that you do not want your participants to know about in
advance. For example, you may think that if the participant knows
everything about your study, then the knowledge she has will change
her behaviour.
• So in order to counteract this, you may want to introduce an element
of deception into your study.

45. • The rules of research state that ‘deception is acceptable only if the
researcher can show that it has a clear, specific methodological
purpose, and . . . [they] should use it only to the minimum degree
necessary’ (Neuman, 2007, p. 49).
• Researchers using deception must obtain informed consent from
their participants (describing the fundamental details of the research
study), make use of deception safely and always debrief the
participants afterwards to explain the use of the deception and the
purposes for which it was used (Neuman, 2007).

46. Protection from physical harm and psychological
• The fundamental principle underlying all these considerations is the
safety of researcher and his participants.
• Care must be taken to prevent both physical and psychological harm.
• Physical harm may come from the use of apparatus in the study, but
also from furniture in the study area.
• Researchers working with young children also need to be aware of
sharp objects and keeping an eye on young children who may put
things in their mouths. It is the researcher’s responsibility to ensure
that the study is conducted in a safe environment and to stop any
study when harm occurs or the researcher sees a potentially harmful
situation arise (Neuman, 2007).

47. • Part of ethical working practice is to consider whether psychological
harm could occur to the participants in any way as a result of carrying
out your research study. For example , triggering trauma in the
participants

48. Participant confidentiality
• When conducting research in an ethical manner, it is necessary to
consider the issue of participant confidentiality: that is, how to
maintain the privacy of the participant and the confidentiality of data
collected so that readers cannot identify any participants or their
individual responses in the research report.