BASIC ISSUES IN THE STUDY OF

DEVELOPMENTCHAPTER 1

NATURE VERSUS NURTURE

◦ Nature: idealists, rationalists Knowledge is inborn

◦ Nurture: empiricists The mind is a blank slate – tabula rasa

◦ Behaviourism Behaviour changes are caused by environmental

factors

Perspectives on Development

STAGES & SEQUENCES

◦ Continuity-discontinuity issue Quantitative – continuous in nature

ie. number of friends increase from zero to many Qualitative – discontinuous

ie. the quality of friendships increases

INTERNAL & EXTERNAL INFLUENCES ON DEVELOPMENT◦ Maturation: genetically programmed sequential

patterns of change Universal – appearing in all children across cultures Sequential – a pattern of unfolding skill or

characteristics Impervious – relatively to environmental influence

◦ However, maturational theorists agree that experience plays a role

◦ The Timing of Experience: Critical period – any time period during development

when an organism is especially responsive to and learns from a specific type of stimulation The same stimulation at other points has little or no

effect ie. a duck at around 15 hours after hatching

Sensitive period – a period during which particular experiences can best contribute to proper development. Similar to the critical period, but deprivation effects

during this period are not as severe

◦ Inborn Biases and Constraints Pre-existing conceptions and contraints on

understanding of behaviour ie. very young babies knowing that unsupported objects

will move downwards; moving objects will continue to move in the same direction

◦ Behaviour Genetics Heredity affects a broad range of behaviour

Seen through studies of identical and fraternal twins

◦ Gene-Environment Interaction Child inherits genes, parents create environment Inherited qualities affect behaviour, affecting

reactions

◦ Internal Models of Experience Creating by the child -- A set of core ideas or assumptions

about the world, about himself and about relationships with others through which all subsequent experience is filtered

◦ Aslin’s Model of Environmental Influence Maturation – no environmental effect Maintenance – some environmental input is necessary to

sustain a skill or behaviour that has already developed maturationally

Facilitation – a skill or behaviour develops earlier because of experience

Attunement – when a particular experience leads to permanent gain or enduring high level of performance

Induction – a pure environmental effect – a behaviour does not develop at all in the absence of experience

THE ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE◦ The importance of context in which child develops◦ Emphasizes that each child grows up in a complex

social environment Culture – system of meanings, customs, values,

attitudes, beliefs, morals Individualism vs. collectivism

Individualism: individual persons whose achievement and responsibility is individual (Europe, North America)

Collectivism: emphasis is on the collective (the whole), group solidarity, shared duties and obligations, group decision making (Asia, Africa, South America)

VULNERABILITY AND RESILIENCE◦ Long-term study of children

Only 2/3 of children in poverty turned out to have serious problems

The other third – resilient – turned out competent, confident, caring

Similar environment different outcomes◦ Vulnerabilities – every child born with them

Temperment, abnormality, allergy, genetic tendency◦ Protective factors – every child born with them also

Intelligence, coordination, smile,◦ Vulnerabilities and Protetive Factors interact with the

environment produce results

PSYCHOANALYTIC◦ Behaviour is governed by conscious and

unconsious processes◦ Freud: argued that libido (sexual drive) is the

motive force behind virtually all human behaviour Personality has a structure, which develops over time The id (source of libido), ego (the “executive”, more

conscious element), superego (centre of conscience and morality)

Infant/todder is al Id, ego develops 2-5, superego begins to develop just before school age

Psychosexual stages: oral, anal, phallic, genital

Theories of Development

◦ Erikson: proposed psychosocial stages Influenced more by common cultural demands for

children of a particular age ie. toilet training at age 2, school skills by 6 or 7

Each child moves fixed sequence of tasks

◦ Both theorists believe though that meeting the stages depend on interactions with people and objects in the world.

◦ When a stage is not completed, it carries forward affecting ability to handle future tasks or stages

COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL AND INFORMATION-PROCESSING THEORIES◦ Emphasize primarily cognitive development

rather than personality◦ Piaget: the central figure

All children seem to go through same discoveries, same mistakes, same solutions

The environment does not shape the child – the child actively seeks to understand his environment

Sub-processes: assimilation, accommodation, equilibration

◦ Vygotsky Complex forms of thinkking have their origins in social

interactions Learning is guided by an adult who models or structures

the learning experience – scaffolding New learning is best achieved in the zone of proximal

development – too hard to do alone but can manage with guidance

◦ Information-Processing Theory Use the computer as a model of human thinking “encoding” – organizing info to be stored in memory “storage” – “retrieval” – Sensory memory – short-term memory – long-term

memory

LEARNING THEORIES◦ Emphasis on the way environment shapes the

child◦ Classical Conditioning

ie. Pavlov – acquisition of new signals for existing responses (salivating dog)

Learning occurs when new stimulus is introduced Other stimuli that are present around the same time

as the unconditional stimulus will trigger the same responses Become “conditional stimuli”

◦ Operant Conditioning The process by which the frequency of a behaviour

increases or decreases because of the consequences the behaviour produces Reinforced vs. Punished

Positive reinforcement: An added stimulus or consequence increases behaviour

Negative reinforcement: Increases a behaviour because the reinforcement

involves the termination or removal of unpleasant stimulus

Punishment: Weakens behaviour (ie. grounding, taking away

privileges)

◦ Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory Learning may also occur merely as a result of

watching someone else perform an action (observational, modeling

Intrinsic (internal) reinforcements: ie. pride, a child feels when figuring out how to raw a

star Satisfaction you experience after exercise

Through modeling, a child acquires attitudes, values, ways of solving problems, self-evaluation standards

COMPARING THEORIES◦ Assumptions about Development

Is the Theory active or passive? Is Nature or Nurture more important? Is development Stable or Changing?

◦ Usefulness Can the theory generate predictions that can be

measured or tested? Heuristic value: does the theory stimulate thinking

and research? What kind of practical value does a theory have?

◦ Eclecticism: the use of multiple theoretical perspectives to explain and study human development